THE parties at the Northern talks have agreed a timetable for the rest of July, which will include a vote in two weeks on the British and Irish governments' decommissioning proposal.
Both governments and all the parties, with the exception of the DUP and the UK Unionists, agreed at yesterday's session in Stormont that the talks would resume next Wednesday and, after two more days' debate, vote on decommissioning on July 23rd.
The move was welcomed by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke, as "an important step". He said it was only the third decision taken in the 13 months of the all-party talks.
"We have to move the process forward so that the Irish people, North and South, can be asked to vote on long-term solutions to this historic problem."
The UUP spokesman, Mr Reg Empey, said his party would be seeking both clarification of and amendments to the governments' decommissioning document before the July 23rd vote. He said both Mr Burke and the British Minister of State, Mr Paul Murphy, had accepted "their proposals are capable of amendment."
The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, warned that if the agreed talks timetable was not adhered to, he would be "fearful that these talks would not be capable of moving into substantive negotiations and if they cannot then they are fulfilling no purpose."
The Ulster Democratic Party spokesman, Mr Davy Adams, agreed with Mr Mallon: "If we fail to agree to move into substantive negotiations within the time- frame accepted by the participants, the future for this process definitely looks bleak."