No agreement on election as proximity talks come to end

THE proximity talks process is concluding today in the shadow of an IRA admission that it was responsible for the weekend bombing in London and a loyalist paramilitary warning that it would match future IRA violence "blow for blow".

The statements of admission from the IRA and of threat from the loyalist paramilitary leadership were issued as various parties, with the exception of Sinn Fein, were engaging in their final rounds of preparatory talks.

These consultations conclude today, after which the British government - in the event of all parties failing to agree on an electoral model - will decide on the type of election to be held prior to all party negotiations on June 10th.

So far there has been no agreement, and none is expected today, which sees the end of the intensive consultation process begun last week.

The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, and the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, are to meet tomorrow at a venue, yet to be decided, to review developments during this intensive round of inter party preparatory discussions.

The British government is likely to make a decision on an electoral model early next week, a spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office said last night.

Meanwhile, Mr Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the SDLP, predicted that the services of Senator George Mitchell may be required again to try to ensure that all parties including Sinn Fein - in the event of an IRA ceasefire - engage in all party negotiations.

Mr Mallon said there was a deadlock between the main unionist parties which were using decommissioning as an obstacle to talks, and the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries who were not prepared to accept that precondition.

Mr Mallon told BBC Radio Ulster that it would be "absolutely essential" for somebody like Senator Mitchell, who chaired the International Body on Decommissioning, to come in as a broker and remove that issue from the all party talks process.

He forecast that the two governments would remove decommissioning from the talks process and request someone like Senator Mitchell to place the issue in a "different context". "I cannot see that the parties in negotiation can solve the problem of decommissioning," he said.

Mr Mallon said he hoped that during the St Patrick's Day function in the White House President Clinton would tell the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, that such preconditions on arms would "not make it easy to solve this problem".