The Ulster Unionist Party is to decide whether it will join Sinn Fein in talks at Stormont at a meeting of its executive committee on September 6th.
However, the party's deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, said yesterday that all-party roundtable talks, due to start a week later, remained "an improbability".
Mr Taylor said recent reports suggesting all-party talks would take place were "misplaced at this moment of time". Ulster Unionists would "not be influenced by those who publicly exhort us to enter talks at any price".
Sinn Fein. That is not the case and we should not get carried away by that nonsense." But the UUP would not be walking away from the process. "If Sinn Fein are accepted into the talks we will not be talking to them directly, but we will continue to talk to the two governments and all other constitutional parties."
The UUP also accused the British and Irish governments of breaking their word in failing to establish the international body to oversee the decommissioning of weapons by July 31st.
Mr Taylor maintained that recent events had shown that "Sinn Fein/IRA will not agree to decommissioning in parallel to talks . . . and will not accept the principle of consent by the people of Northern Ireland for any agreement emerging from the Stormont talks." These two "very serious issues" were the reason roundtable talks remained improbable.
Mr Taylor's comments came as the UUP embarked on meetings with community and voluntary groups as part of a consultation process which will also include business and church representatives. Community groups had been selected by computer to get the views of a genuine cross-section of people in the North. Sinn Fein's Northern chairman, Mr Gerry O hEara, said his party was concerned that the consent issue was set in an all-Ireland context, and not in "the narrow confines of the six counties".
He said Sinn Fein was eager to address the fears of unionist people, but that the unionist parties could not "expect to predetermine the outcome of the negotiations by insisting that other parties concede to the unionist interpretation of consent".
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, said yesterday that the US government's decision to grant a visa to Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, was "entirely a matter for the US authorities". But she said she was encouraged by their assurance that money raised in America would be "closely monitored to ensure it is not diverted for illegal purposes".
Dr Mowlam was accused of deception by UUP security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis. He said that both she and US President, Mr Bill Clinton, were "preparing to facilitate the IRA's philosophy of `an Armalite in one hand and a ballot paper in the other'."
Mr Maginnis said Dr Mowlam was determined to have the IRA at the talks, and Mr Clinton was "going to help ensure that any expense incurred in the exercise doesn't deplete the IRA `fighting fund'".