The Government "cannot conceive" of supporting an executive without Sinn Fein participation, a spokesman said yesterday as Ministers and officials prepared to return to Belfast to make a fresh attempt to break the impasse on decommissioning.
Confirming that the Government could not support pressing ahead without the party's involvement, he added: "The whole point of the exercise is that it must be inclusive . . . It must remain an inclusive process."
Amid an official refusal to admit either pessimism or optimism, sources last night predicted that the next few days would be "very difficult." The Government is expected to table several proposals at the renewed talks, including some dealing with suggestions for a "day of reconciliation" as proposed in the Hillsborough Declaration at Easter.
Insisting that the principles of the Belfast Agreement had not been breached in the declaration, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said the difficulties were not insurmountable. According to the Government spokesman: "The declaration is the starting point for the discussions.
"There is no question of rewriting the Good Friday Agreement and we reject any attempt to do that. We are trying to spell out an interpretation of how to go forward within the agreement."
While the Taoiseach has no plans at this point to travel to Belfast, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, and the Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, will go North today. They begin the latest round of talks with a meeting with the Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam.
A Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Gerry Kelly, claimed the Belfast Agreement was under serious threat from the Ulster Unionists, whose stance on decommissioning could "undo all the work" of recent years.
"We have taken the republican constituency to the limit and we will continue to stretch ourselves politically, for that is the responsibility of all political leaderships. But we can only work within the terms of the agreement itself," he said.
The UUP Assembly party said there were areas of the Hillsborough Declaration, made a fortnight ago by the two governments, that required "substantial clarification", and while the document was "a basis for negotiation", the party was reserving its position on it until after clarification.
Rachel Donnelly writes from London: Drawing some encouragement from republican statements on the Hillsborough Declaration, the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, agreed yesterday that the proposals on decommissioning and the establishment of the executive presented by both governments on April 1st had the potential to resolve the deadlock.