The Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party has drafted secret proposals that could let Sinn Fein join new power-sharing arrangements in Northern Ireland before the IRA disbands, it emerged today.
Although the DUP is committed to stopping republicans wielding real influence until the Provisionals are stood down, it has produced a blueprint which would see all parties working in a fresh form of devolution.
With a major review of the Belfast Agreement beginning this week, the party will put its ideas to British Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street on Thursday before unveiling them in Belfast the next day.
Central to the proposals is a recommendation that power should rest with the 108-member Stormont Assembly as a whole rather than the 12 ministers who governed before the power-sharing regime collapsed nearly 18 months ago.
A DUP source said: "There are political realities in Northern Ireland we may not like but we have to respect.
"Were power to be devolved to the Assembly then obviously Sinn Fein is one of a number of parties in that Assembly."
This would see Gerry Adams' party having a say on how to run Northern Ireland, based on a weighted majority. It is understood one idea would see the Assembly decide that power should be exercised through the departmental committee structures.
But the proposals would also stop Sinn Fein from operating key ministerial portfolios like the Education and Health briefs it ran before devolution was suspended in October 2002 amid claims of an IRA spy-plot inside the government.
The party's strategy will be studied closely during the review which starts on Tuesday.
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PA