IRA members in the Maze Prison have come out strongly against a decommissioning gesture as demanded by the Ulster Unionists. The message was conveyed by the Sinn Fein Assembly Member Mr Gerry Kelly after he had spent six hours talking to the prisoners yesterday.
The meeting was initially planned to last 4 1/2 hours. Mr Kelly, himself a former Maze prisoner who escaped in 1983, spoke to the 82 IRA men still in the prison.
"Not a single political prisoner suggested that there should be a gesture or any movement on decommissioning. They said that the IRA had spoken on that three times," Mr Kelly said.
Meanwhile, speculation is growing that the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach may travel to Belfast later this week to negotiate a resolution to the decommissioning impasse.
Round-table talks involving the Assembly parties were held yesterday at Stormont and further discussions are due to take place this week.
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, who chaired yesterday's session said: "We found our way through a lot of difficult issues during the last year and I believe it's possible to keep going on that road and find a way to deal with the very difficult issues that we're facing."
She said there were still "deep anxieties on both sides about whether the representatives of the other will implement their commitments".
There were also "real fears about physical safety" in both communities, heightened by the "appalling murder" of Ms Rosemary Nelson last week.
Nevertheless, an "extraordinary amount" had been agreed. "I have said that I intend to call a meeting of the Assembly in the week beginning March 29th to run the d'Hondt procedure and to appoint shadow ministers. We would need to do so early in that week to have any chance of transferring powers before Easter," she added.
Mr Dermot Nesbitt of the Ulster Unionist Party said: "It's not a question of `not an inch from unionists' it's a question of all of us subscribing to the Belfast Agreement in full and making sure all of it is implemented."
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said his party remained optimistic the problems could be overcome. "Over the next week the outstanding matters facing us must be resolved to the satisfaction of all, and in compliance with the Good Friday agreement. We welcome the close involvement of the two governments at the highest level and the continuing concern of the US President."
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said unionist demands on decommissioning were "outside the agreement". There was an agreed mechanism for resolving the issue.