Senior Ulster Unionists have refused to go public on private admissions that the IRA's decision to allow arms dumps to be examined was a powerful development, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness said today.
He said: "I won't name them, but several individuals who are very influential within the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party have told me in the course of recent months they regarded the international inspectors' efforts as a very powerful development."
Mr McGuinness told BBC Radio Ulster: "Whilst privately they concede to me that they consider this to be a powerful development, I say in response: 'Why don't you say that publicly?' Of course they sit there and say nothing."
As Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair prepared for Downing Street talks with the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists, there was still no sign of the republican leadership moving on decommissioning.
President George W. Bush's special envoy to Ireland, Mr Richard Hass, is also having talks with Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid today, amid growing fears in Belfast the latest outbreak of sectarian rioting that left nearly 40 police officers injured could spread.
First Minister Mr David Trimble has already threatened to resign if decommissioning is not achieved by his July 1st deadline.
PA