THE British Prime Minister is to meet the SDLP at the House of Commons on Tuesday in an attempt to sell his plan for elections' as a route to negotiations on the future of Northern Ireland.
Signalling a drive to reassure nationalist opinion - outraged by the terms of his response to the Mitchell report on Wednesday - Mr Major also wrote to the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, assuring him his plan for an "elective process in the North rests on the principle of "widespread acceptability".
At the same time, Mr Major has trenchantly restated his "decommissioning or elections" options, insisting "the unwillingness of Sinn Fein/IRA to begin decommissioning their arms" remains the impediment to all party talks.
Downing Street sources, meanwhile, insist there was no basis for Irish Government surprise at the terms of the Prime Minister's statement. The sources insisted Mr Major gave Mr Bruton "a very clear idea" of his intentions during a 35 minute telephone conversation on Tuesday night.
The Prime Minister spoke to the Taoiseach after a meeting of his cabinet's Northern Ireland committee had agreed the terms of the British government's response to the report of the international body.
According to the Downing Street account, Mr Major made clear his intention to restate his support for the Washington 3 test as the most direct route to talks and that he would endorse the concept of elections as an alternative way to negotiations and "parallel" decommissioning.
Specifically, Mr Major is said to have told Mr Bruton he would signal his readiness to bring forward legislation to create an elected body and to seek urgent parliamentary approval for it. The sources said Mr Major concurred when the Taoiseach observed that any elected body would have to be widely acceptable to the communities in Northern Ireland.
Moreover, it is claimed that the terms of Mr Major's intended statement were indicated separately on Tuesday night to a member of the Taoiseach's staff.
As the dispute continued between London and Dublin last night, it was unclear whether Mr Bruton sought any assurance from Mr Major about the terms of his reply to Mr Mitchell's proposed route to all party talks or looked for any indication of Mr Major's view on how the Mitchell report impinged on the end of February, target date for those talks, agreed last November with the launch of the twin track strategy.
In the House of Commons yesterday, the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, directly challenged Sir Patrick Mayhew to say whether the British government remained committed to that target date.
"To achieve that," demanded, Mr Hume, "will the British government implement the only major proposal of the report - that all parties be allowed into such talks, providing they accept the six principles . . . contained in the report?"
The Northern Secretary replied: "It remains the firm aim of the governments that all party talks should begin by the end of February, and I reaffirm that. But I cannot command that nor can I require and compel people to come who will not come. If I were to try to do that and summon talks in the sure and certain knowledge that other people would not be there, I would destroy the very process upon which all progress depends."
Pressed by Mr Hume, Sir Patrick continued: "I happen to know that unionists will not be there on the terms that have been put forward by Mitchell. What we want is to get the confidence that will secure people there and that is to be found in the alternative route of elections."