The British and Irish governments will this morning consider a fresh DUP policy paper which may advance the deadlocked peace process. Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor, reports.
A well-placed British source thought the position paper "could become the focus" of the second day of intensive talks among the parties at Stormont. The initiative was announced by the DUP at Parliament Buildings where the mood was marked by a sense of slippage despite efforts by the two governments to maintain a sense of urgency.
Mr Peter Robinson, the Democratic Unionists' deputy leader, said yesterday his party would spend the night preparing the document to submit to the governments and other parties today.
Holding to his party's demands for greater ministerial accountability and reforms relating to the posts of first and deputy first minister, Mr Robinson said: "I don't think you can have a rogue minister going off and taking a decision in defiance of the overwhelming majority of people in the Assembly. Nor can you have a minister taking a decision which is against the interests of one section of our community."
He said the DUP required "cross-community decision taking and not majority rule". He asked: "Has somebody got a problem with that?"
Sinn Féin and the SDLP said they did. Holding to the detail of the Belfast Agreement, Mr Mark Durkan told The Irish Times that the DUP sought to cause legislative gridlock and to impede the work of nationalist ministers in any restored executive.
Mr Durkan said: "What we are not going to do is have a situation where people can say to us, 'be reasonable, the IRA are giving up their arms, you have to give up some of your positions too'. The IRA should never have had their arms in the first place. Our position in relation to Strand One and Two go to the core of our principles."
For Sinn Féin, Mr Martin McGuinness questioned the DUP's proclaimed unity: "At Leeds Castle people were telling us that Peter Robinson and Ian Paisley were singing from the same hymn sheet, that they were having difficulties with some of the backwoods men. This is a real test of leadership for Peter Robinson and Ian Paisley."
A Sinn Féin source said it was important that the DUP engage directly with republicans soon and that the progress made so far risked unravelling.
A three-page paper produced by the two governments, which was leaked yesterday, appeared not to find consensus among the parties on issues relating to the operation of the Assembly.
"Overnight we will produce our own paper which will be our best understanding of what may be possible in the light of the meetings we have had," Mr Robinson said. "If the problem (of ministerial accountability) can be resolved by a process of the Assembly or a combination of the Assembly and the Executive we are content."
But he added he was not yet convinced the parties and the governments were in agreement on that criterion.
Disagreement on these technical issues are standing in the way of delivery on paramilitary activity, decommissioning of weapons, and policing and justice devolution - the three other main points on the Leeds Castle agenda.
As the talks continued there was speculation that in the event of failure, Mr Tony Blair could recall the Assembly to try to elect a first and deputy first minister and an executive.
Meanwhile, British sources confirmed the likelihood of an announcement "before the end of the week" concerning an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane and loyalist collusion with the police and British army.