UNIONIST spokesmen yesterday vehemently rejected the proposal by the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, for a separate but parallel stream of negotiations on decommissioning arms, and insisted that the decommissioning issue must be dealt with at the outset of all party negotiations on June 10th.
The DUP accused Dublin of trying to "appease the IRA". The party's secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said Mr Spring's comments were totally unacceptable.
"The issue of the handing over of illegal terrorist arms cannot be fudged or shunted off down some side track where it would be conveniently forgotten," he said. "It must be dealt with right at the beginning. It is not an issue for negotiation but for action."
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, described the proposal as foolish. He suggested the requirement that all parties at the negotiations would first have to sign up to the Mitchell principles and commit themselves to nonviolence would be the test of the decommissioning issue.
"If they do, the issue is settled," Mr Trimble said. "But it won't be settled if any attempts are made by Mr Spring to side line, bury or detach the issue of decommissioning from the communique to which his Government was party in February."
Mr Trimble's deputy, Mr John Taylor, repeated the assertion he has made previously, that in Northern Ireland "Mr Spring is the most detested politician".
However, the SDLP West Belfast MP, Dr Joe Hendron, saw merit in the proposal and said it could avoid the risk of the all party talks becoming bogged down in the first few days on the issue of decommissioning.
There was a non committal reaction from Sinn Fein. The party's national chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, simply said that they would read Mr Spring's suggestions carefully.