IN response to yesterday's UUP statement on decommissioning, the British government last night reiterated its position that the International Body's proposals on this issue should be addressed by the opening plenary session of the inter party negotiations.
It said that this plenary session was where the UUP proposals needed to be considered. "The government will play a full part in that debate and will make every effort to promote convergence on an agreed approach to the decommissioning issue."
Mr Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the SDLP, said that the political talks lacked the essential will to make them work. Three and a half months alter their launch, substantive negotiations had not begun because of the positions adopted by the main unionist parties.
He said the decommissioning issue threatened to undermine political negotiations and block the road to progress.
"When will unionist leaders explain to their followers that the Mitchell report they professed to accept involves a process of negotiations, and a commitment to engage and persuade those who hold weapons that the political path alone is the way forward?" Any decommissioning would have to involve both sets of paramilitaries, Mr Mallon said.
Sinn Fe in ardchomhairle member Mr Martin McGuinness said that the UUP stance on decommissioning was proof that preconditions were an obstacle to real negotiations.
What was required was an inclusive peace process, which removed all preconditions, had an agreed timeframe, "and in which all sides, but especially the British government, seeks to build confidence", he said.