Downing Street has denied a report that the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, had face-to-face talks with three members of the IRA's "army council" during last month's talks at Stormont during which an offer to decommission all IRA weapons by the May 2000 deadline was put on the table.
The offer from the IRA was made directly to Mr Blair and not through Sinn Fein intermediaries shortly before the prime minister spoke of "seismic shifts" in republicanism, according to a report in yesterday's London Independent on Sunday.
Claiming that "senior diplomatic sources" had confirmed the meeting, the report said the members of the "army council" made their offer to Mr Blair intending that he should then pass it on to the Ulster Unionists.
After the meeting, the report said that "without explaining its source", Mr Blair announced a historic shift in the political landscape of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, appeared to support his belief when he said: "Things were given that were never given before."
Asked if Downing Street denied the prime minister had met members of the IRA's "army council" during the Stormont talks or at any other time, the spokesman said: "Yes, all contacts with the republican movement have been through Sinn Fein."
A Sinn Fein spokesman said the report was "absolutely and categorically not true" and that only longstanding Sinn Fein negotiators, Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness, had met Mr Blair and Mr Ahern during the Stormont negotiations.
"There is a sinister element in this story in that it keeps the issue of decommissioning as the main issue."
The Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, dismissed Sinn Fein's comments saying all the parties knew they were talking to members of the IRA's "army council" when they spoke to Mr McGuinness and Mr Adams and also to Mr Pat Doherty and Mr Martin Ferris.
He told The Irish Times the idea that the "army council" offered to decommission at a meeting with Mr Blair during the Stormont negotiations was "utter rubbish".
Progressive Unionist Party spokesman, Mr Billy Hutchinson, also said he doubted the IRA had made any offer to decommission.