The Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, has said he believes the Northern talks should be moved to a location in Europe and that they should be held behind closed doors until an agreement is reached.
Mr De Rossa, who was speaking to a meeting of the Irish Association in Belfast yesterday, said that if Sinn Fein joined the UDP outside the talks, the strategy pursued by the British and Irish governments in recent years would be seriously undermined.
He questioned whether the peace process constructed at present could survive, "if some paramilitaries exclude themselves from the talks". Mr De Rossa said that if "malign forces" continued their offstage activities, pressure on the peace process could become unbearable.
On specific issues being discussed at the talks, he said the proposed assembly should have at its core the concept of weighted majorities, and that the parties should decide in what circumstances such a mechanism should come into play.