A SINN Fein councillor has said the IRA would find it difficult to resist calling a new ceasefire if the British government initiated meaningful negotiations with an open agenda and a set time table.
Mr Alex Maskey, speaking at the Students Union in Queen's University, Belfast, yesterday, said the present Stormont talks were fundamentally flawed and London appeared to be uninterested in peace.
However, he thought the republican movement would respond generously if the circumstances changed and there was "open dialogue". Nowhere in the world had antagonists disarmed before a political settlement.
Mr Maskey was due to speak alongside spokesmen for the Progressive Unionist Party and the Ulster Democratic Party. However, the fringe loyalists refused to share a platform with him - they spoke first and then left.
Mr David Adams, of the UDP, said it would be impossible to share a platform with Sinn Fein in the absence of an IRA ceasefire. Loyalists had taken part in discussions with republicans before the breakdown of the ceasefire.
The UDP press officer told students that inter community strife would continue for a long time after a political settlement.
Mr Billy Mitchell, of the PUP, said loyalists had committed "dastardly deeds" but were now trying to "move away" from that.
Mr Maskey said he regretted the decision by the PUP and UDP not to share a platform with him. He questioned the right of loyalist politicians to take the moral high ground.