The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Brian Cowen, said today there was no mystery about what elements of the Irish and British Northern peace proposals would be.
Speaking at a launch of Limerick Navigation and Marina today, the Minister said: "The focus will be on the four issues which have dominated the discussions with the parties over the past several months - policing, demilitarisation, the putting of arms beyond use, and what we call the stability of the institutions."
The British and Irish governments have this week been working on a package of measures to put to the North’s political parties.Saying it would be a balanced document, Mr Cowen emphasised it was not about pre-conditions or the primacy of one issue over another.
Meanwhile the Democratic Unionist Party today tried to force the British government to disclose details of the package of proposals in the House of Commons.
The DUP said it had tabled an early-day motion calling on the British government publicly to disclose the plan on which it was currently working with the Government.
North Belfast MP Mr Nigel Dodds said it was outrageous small pro-Agreement parties with "less than 2 per cent" of the vote and, in the case of the loyalist UDP, no representation at all, were going to be given copies of the deal while the DUP would be given no access.
"The Government must realise that the DUP and other like-minded unionists represent the overwhelming majority of the unionist community," he said.
He said the people of Northern Ireland were entitled to know the full details of the package. Keeping the details of the plan among the pro-Agreement parties was "a gross violation of civil and democratic rights".
However Mr Cowen said the events on the streets of Belfast over the last week or so are a wake-up call to us all that the past is not yet a foreign country.
"In its essence, the [Belfast] Agreement is about a new alliance in Northern Ireland and on this island between those who favour partnership rather than victory," he said.