THE Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said yesterday his party remained totally committed to its peace strategy and to the resolution of "the Anglo Irish conflict".
Responding to comments by the British prime minister after the explosion in London on Wednesday night, he said if Mr Major was serious about a restoration of the peace process, "he must assure the sceptics that June 10th will see the commencement of a process of proper and substantive negotiations".
The Sinn Fein national chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, described the London incident as a serious development. He said: "Today's events, whether they are linked directly or not, do not change the fact that the IRA indicated that they believed the elections were bogus and did not contain the necessary dynamic."
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said: "It is strange that on the eve of a Bill that is trying to put these gunmen forward as democrats and secure for them, by rigging the election system, a certain place at the negotiating table, these same men that the government are so pleased to elevate are at their dastardly work."
The UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, said his assumption was that the IRA had wanted to make its presence felt in the run up to yesterday's debate.
The UUP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said the explosion seemed to fall into the category of "low level operations" - a move to attract attention to the fact that the IRA was still present, rather than being a serious military attack.
Mr William Smyth of the PUP said people in the loyalist community would see the incident as just a further continuation of the IRA's 25 years of war.
Mr David Adams, spokesman for the UDP, said the loyalist paramilitaries had shown great restraint up to now, and he could not see them at this stage allowing republicans to dictate events for them.