THE British Prime Minister, Mr Major, speaking at a joint press conference with the Taoiseach, said he hoped and expected that Mr George Mitchell would chair the plenary session of the all party talks.
"George Mitchell is a very able and talented man. He spent a great deal of time and trouble over the Mitchell report and the Mitchell principles are the basis that form the entry point into these particular discussions.
"Quite apart from George Mitchell's natural talents and ability to chair the plenary, I believe that much otherwise fruitless discussion about what the Mitchell report might have meant can be readily dispensed with if you have the author of the Mitchell report chairing the plenary, when he can make it perfectly plain what he meant.
"He was perfectly plain in his report about the need for decommissioning to go alongside political negotiations during the talks, so I very much hope and expect - I think it is perfectly proper for the participants to discuss this, they are going to have to sit under the chairmanship at the end of all the discussions - but I very much hope and believe that George Mitchell will be acceptable and will carry out his responsibilities", he said.
Mr Major was asked if there was any significance in his failure to mention the Framework Document when it was referred to twice by Mr Bruton in his address and if there had been a cooling in the British government's attitude to the document. The Prime Minister replied: "You should read nothing sinister into any textual difference between the Taoiseach and I on that or indeed on other matters. I dare say there are one or two things in my speech that John didn't mention."
Reviewing the different agreements reached between the two, governments, he said the circumstances had now been reached where the negotiators would determine what was satisfactory.
"We can't impose it upon them. We're not in the business of imposing things upon people. That firstly is not the way we wish to proceed and secondly it would not be effective.
Asked about the Republic's territorial claim to the North, the Taoiseach said his Government's aim was to find an opportunity for people to work together. "Claims which are phrased in territorial terms don't represent the reality of the modern world where people can move from one territory to another with such great ease. What's crucial now is the sense of allegiance that each individual feels, not the land that they live on or what flag flies on that land or who has the deeds of that land. What is important is the sense of allegiance that individual citizens, wherever they live, feel themselves.
He saw the Framework Document, which Mr Major and himself had agreed, as being "essentially an agreement whereby we are putting the allegiance of people first" and putting territorial claims "into their proper, comparatively less important role".
Mr Major added: "The allegiance will be determined and endorsed in a referendum."
Asked if he felt he had been too cautious about the peace process over the past two years, Mr Major said: "The reality is that this is only going to succeed if we bring all the parties together to talk, and an awful lot of people, I seem to recall, not just over the past two years but over the last five years or so, have predicted with absolute certainty that we would never get to this day, exactly the same people who said you will never get agreement on the Downing Street Declaration, exactly the same people who said you will never get agreement on frameworks, exactly the same people who said you'd never find a way in which you can hold the elections and everybody will take part - someone will walk out - exactly the same people who said you won't get agreement on the Forum and exactly the same people who said you wouldn't actually get everybody sitting round the table."
Asked for the basis of his confidence that the process would succeed when so many people in Northern Ireland felt it was doomed, Mr Major said: "People have been saying this process is doomed from the very first day but there is, if I may put it this way, a secret weapon in making sure that this talks process succeeds and the secret weapon is the determination of the people of Northern Ireland who have had not just the last 25 years but historically much longer - but certainly the last 25 years - in which their living standards, their well being, their security, their safety, their whole way of life have been totally diminished by the violence that we have seen. My judgment of the people out there - I don't just mean the negotiators, I mean the people they represent - all the people of Northern Ireland, is that they are sick and tired of this issue, and they want their politicians and the government to come together and actually see if they can find a solution.
"Now I think that's a powerful imperative and it is upon that basis that I think there is an obligation upon the governments and an obligation upon the elected politicians in Northern Ireland to do everything they can to try and reach a settlement. They won't have to answer to me if they don't or to the Taoiseach if they don't, they will have to answer to the people of Northern Ireland."
Asked about the prospects for an IRA ceasefire, Mr Bruton said:
"It is very important to recognise that many people who voted for Sinn Fein did so in order to encourage Sinn Fein to pursue a peace strategy and indeed in their campaign they referred to peace a lot. Obviously the opportunity that they have to pursue a peace strategy is made available to them in these talks, starting today. The only obligation that is required is that the IRA would reinstate the ceasefire. I believe that that in fact creates a greater pressure for a restoration of the ceasefire.
"I'd also like to make the point that John Hume and the SDLP over many years kept faith with them when many others didn't have confidence in the commitment of Sinn Fein and the republican movement ultimately to a peaceful solution. Now it's very clear that John Hume and the SDLP also want them to come into these talks and want the IRA to have a ceasefire now, so that that can happen. I think All of those forces within their own community, and in light of their own mandate, are working towards the restoration of the ceasefire and I believe that weight will be given to those.
"It's furthermore very important to make the point that the two governments have sought to give answers to every query. Every issue that was raised, there have been answers provided and the conditions have been created now for truly inclusive and meaningful negotiations which you will recollect was what they were looking for all along. That's now there: those negotiations start today and all that needs to be done for Sinn Fein to take their full part on the strength of their full mandate is for the first of the Mitchell principles to be accepted by the entire republican movement", Mr Bruton said.
Asked if he would meet Mr Gerry Adams and shake his hand, in the event of an IRA ceasefire, Mr Major replied: "Let's get the IRA ceasefire first, shall we, and then we'll deal with other matters of that sort."
Asked if the talks were "worth a penny candle" without Sinn Fein, Mr Bruton said it was very important that Sinn Fein should be in the talks, "but nobody has a veto".
It was important that Sinn Fein was there and was allowed to be there - "by the IRA".
Asked if a settlement was possible without Sinn Fein, the Taoiseach replied: "Well, let's see. Hopefully that question will not have to be answered."