THE political parties at the Stormont talks will consider a memo issued yesterday by the chairman, Mr George Mitchell, which seeks to resolve the controversy about the ground rules for the negotiations.
The document suggests that a single set of rules could be drafted which would "allow the chairman to conduct the business of the meetings" without prejudice to the governments' opinion or parties' different views of the ground rules paper.
Mr Mitchell had asked the parties to submit views on the status of the rules prepared for the talks by the Irish and British governments. On the basis of those submissions, the former senator, with the other chairmen, Mr Harri Holkeri and Gen John de Chastelain, issued the memo.
The document reiterated the governments' firm commitment to their ground rules paper. It so noted that several parties supported the governments' view while others rejected that view. "It seems unlikely that any of these positions will change", the memo said.
On that basis the parties could draft rules. "At the end of that drafting exercise participants might then consider whether a sufficient workable basis for the conduct of meetings had been achieved."
During yesterday's discussions the leader of the UK Unionist party, Mr Bob McCartney, again raised the issue of "sufficient consensus". This is the basis on which decisions would be made if unanimous agreement could not be reached. Provisional agreement had been reached on this issue on Wednesday, but it was discussed for several hours yesterday.
Mr Seamus Close of the Alliance Party afterwards questioned the "semantic gymnastics" in agreeing the right rules and procedures. His party accepted that unionists might be unhappy with certain aspects of the ground rules but he did not think they were making progress if they were trying to "unstitch" every agreement or understanding that went back years.
Ms Bronagh Hinds of the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition believed, however, that progress was being made, the atmosphere was "improving". Mr McCartney had raised a "subtle point" and the subsequent discussion was worthwhile for clarification.
Ms Brid Rodgers of the SDLP also believed that some progress had been made. "It is better to spend time now on the rules procedures than to run into difficulties later."
According to Northern Ireland Office sources, "a certain amount of progress was made. It is important to bear in mind that the parties are still very actively engaged in the meetings and that is a positive sign."
Ulster Unionist MP Mr Ken Maginnis described the governments' ground rules document as a "mishmash of contradictions, ambivalence and evasions". He added, however, that nobody believed they could "rewrite history". What they were trying to do was to "get the procedures right" and "if we do that they will be insulated and stand over anything and everything else".
The leader of the UDP, Mr Gary McMichael, said there were some outstanding issues to be sorted out, such as what role the Northern Ireland parties would have in the negotiations between the British and Irish governments in Strand Three of the talks. "We can't accept a situation where the governments are working without consulting the parties."
The parties also considered the schedule for next week's meetings and the talks will begin again on Monday at 1 p.m. and conclude on Thursday at 2 p.m.
