DUP to stay out of talks even if SF expelled - Paisley

The Rev Ian Paisley has stated that even if Sinn Fein is expelled from the talks the Democratic Unionist Party will remain outside the process. Dr Paisley has also published what he described as a high-level Downing Street document leaked to him by a Northern civil servant opposed to the talks process. The document (published in full underneath) is a letter containing minutes of a meeting in Washington on February 5th between the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, and a number of prominent Irish-American politicians.

The DUP leader yesterday repeated that his party was not prepared to engage in the talks because they were designed to lead to "de facto joint authority". This would remain the case even if Sinn Fein was forced from the talks.

Dr Paisley cited the leaked Downing Street document, sent from the Prime Minister's office to the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam's office, as supporting his contention. It will embarrass Dr Mowlam, who has stated that some civil servants in the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) are working to damage her policies and destabilise the peace process.

The DUP has regularly boasted of its contacts within the NIO and of civil servants who are prepared to divulge confidential information to the party.

A Downing Street spokesman said: "We would always condemn the leaking of internal documents, even those which are unclassified. Furthermore, we would not discuss leaked documents."

An NIO source said while the leaking of the document was regretted there was little damaging in the paper. The quoted remarks of Mr Blair were already generally in the public domain, he said.

Dr Paisley focused on passages of the report in which Mr Blair purportedly said that "any settlement would of course have to include meaningful North-South structures and action on the equality issues".

Mr Blair, in responding to some criticism of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader, Mr David Trimble, said that the UUP in the Propositions on the Heads of Agreement paper "had signed up to North-South structures". This should be acknowledged, particularly in the light of the pressure Mr Trimble faced from Dr Paisley and the UK Unionist Party leader, Mr Robert McCartney.

Dr Paisley said the release of the document by the DUP "will come as a devastating blow to the government because it reveals their strategy in telling the people of Northern Ireland one thing whilst working behind their back to achieve the destruction of the Union".

The UK Unionist Party leader, Mr McCartney, said it would be a "cruel deception" for anyone to believe excluding Sinn Fein from the talks would lead to a settlement "with constitutional nationalism".

The process was "designed for the destruction of the Union", he told a party gathering in Newtownards, Co Down, last night.