Efforts to rebuild the peace process were plunged deeper into crisis tonight after the Ulster Unionist Party leader's Mr David Trimble led a unionist walk-out from round table talks aimed at restoring devolution.
The Ulster Unionist leader was outraged over a Government position paper which leaked out in Dublin on Wednesday and which said the IRA was still active, training, targeting and buying new weapons, though only as a precaution rather than in preparation for a return to war.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowan, in Belfast to co-host the talks with Ulster Secretary Mr Paul Murphy, insisted the document had no status and did not reflect Government policy.
But it was too much for Mr Trimble, who stormed out of the talks at Stormont almost as soon as he had arrived.
Mr Trimble insisted: "The people of Northern Ireland would not understand if we sat around that table talking as if nothing had happened in a situation where it has been clearly shown that republicans have been in breach of their ceasefire and breach of the Agreement."
He said he would wait to see what the British government was going to say about the breaches, and more specifically what it was going to do.
Rather than "chit-chattering as if nothing had happened" it was more appropriate to call a halt to his participation and call upon the governments to explain themselves, said the former First Minister.
Unionists were also furious over the Irish document claims that their party's approach to the current political impasse was "internally dysfunctional".
Members of the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the Loyalist Paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force, and Bob McCartney of the UK Unionist Party also quit the talks.
The parties that remained, Sinn Fein, the nationalist SDLP and the middle of the road Alliance Party, condemned the walkout and accused Mr Trimble of pulling a stunt and of having only gone to the talks so he could walk out.
Mr Murphy and Mr Cowan made brief statements of regret at the walkout when the talks finally concluded.
Both said they hoped the unionists would be back when next talks are held.
But Mr Murphy said the protest underlined yet again "the lack of trust between parties and the gravity of the situation" and insisted that in spite of reports of the leaked document, the British government's assessment of the security situation and paramilitary activity had not changed.
Mr Cowan said "disproportionate emphasis" had been placed on the leaked document. That document had no status, it does not represent Irish Government policy."
And he said of the walkout: "These developments are regrettable because they retard rather than advance."
He said the two governments had gone to the meeting today to propose the framework to sort out the difficulties facing the peace process. But he emphasised: "Unless all participate we will not make the necessary progress."
PA
