THE Rev Ian Paisley has warned the DUP will boycott the all party negotiations on June 10th unless the elected forum meets first.
Dr Paisley said yesterday if talks were to begin first it would undermine the role of the forum.
"If Patrick Mayhew won't allow the forum to meet until after talks, then we won't be of a mind, no matter what he does on June 10th, to have anything to do with the negotiations."
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said Dr Paisley's warning illustrated that the election was a distraction.
"This is an obvious example of how this elective process and forum will be used, not as an entry into negotiations as claimed, but instead as a stall to them. The priority is the commencement of real negotiations through all party talks."
Dr Paisley's warning was also deplored by the Alliance Party leader, Dr John Alderdice. It was not acceptable that Dr Paisley should start to impose conditions on the way that the talks were handled.
"Dr Paisley's demands are most unhelpful. He should accept that both the forum and the negotiating body are important and not seek to impose his own agenda," said Dr Alderdice.
"The politics of boycott are the politics of failure. Dr Paisley threats are a cynical and ploy. I hope that those who negotiated a settlement will see them as such and reject his tactics.
Meanwhile Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, president of Republican Sinn Fein, called on all nationalists and specifically the SDLP and Sinn Fein to "boycott and deny credibility to the English election farce in the six, occupied counties on May 30th".
Mr O Bradaigh said Republican Sinn Fein was embarking on a campaign to try to persuade all nationalists to ignore the election.
"The Stormont scheme underway at present simply provides for a return to old style unionist ascendancy under British government sponsorship."
The Ulster Unionist Party MEP, Mr Jim Nicholson, said nationalist calls for a boycott of the election called into question the sincerity of the nationalist parties, which "call endlessly for talks but appear to be reluctant to actually follow their own advice to discuss the problem".
"If such a policy of selective participation is to be adopted by any party, then any election could not hope to achieve anything constructive and will only further add to division."
