Senior members of Sinn Fein were last night talking up hopes of an early IRA ceasefire. Mr Pat Doherty, vice-president of Sinn Fein, said he expected that the IRA would react shortly and he was optimistic that it would respond positively to Sinn Fein's call.
He said his party had given "a real guarantee of a commitment that we will stick to a peace strategy".
He said: "We want to see this resolved. We want to see real negotiations. Anybody who wants to put obstacles in the way are not serious about a peace process and they should examine their own position."
Mr Doherty said unionists would have to decide if they wanted to resolve the conflict. "Do they want a real peace, are they interested in peace, or are they interested in putting up obstacles to the rest of us collectively seeking peace?" he asked. "That's a big decision for them, but I think that if they have a focus and a belief in the needs of their community, they can go into talks with us with the strength of their arguments and put them on the table just as we will put ours on the table."
Another senior member of the organisation, Mr Jim Gibney, also raised hopes for an early IRA ceasefire, saying the call by Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness would not have been put in the public domain unless an optimistic outcome was expected.
"You wouldn't have had this initiative if it wasn't for the efforts of Sinn Fein and the Sinn Fein leadership and others. And you wouldn't have it in the public domain unless people were relatively optimistic about its outcome," Mr Gibney said.
Mr Denis Haughey, a member of the SDLP executive, said it was "a very significant, a very important and a very hopeful development", and he trusted the IRA would respond quickly. He said the SDLP had been trying to bring about a permanent end to violence.
"I would hope and pray that this will be the final end to the killing . . . It has been the objective of John Hume and the SDLP for a long time to bring to an end, once and for all, the violence that has racked this country for the last 30 years." Mr Haughey added that in the event of an IRA ceasefire being called, he hoped it would be possible to get all parties around the talks table in September.
Dr Joe Hendron, former SDLP MP for West Belfast defeated at the last Westminster election by Mr Adams, said he believed yesterday's moves by Sinn Fein were "genuine".
"I believe this is genuine. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness wouldn't have issued this statement if they had any reason to think the IRA weren't going to call it," said Dr Hendron, a long time and trenchant critic of Sinn Fein. He was "absolutely delighted" by the announcement and added he had felt for some time that it had been "round the corner".
Another SDLP member, Mr Alisdair McDonnell, said he hoped that "whatever beginning will be made in the next 24 hours can be built on" and there would be a return to the prosperity which had started to come about after the ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Alliance Party spokesman, Mr Steve McBride, said the statement deserved "a calm and cautious welcome". He said the real welcome would be reserved for the proof, which could only be established over time. He said it had to be established "that this represents a genuine and lasting commitment to peaceful means and the democratic process and is not just another tactical ploy in a long and cynical game".
Mr McBride said the onus was on Sinn Fein and the IRA to convince others that they were serious about peace this time, and "the challenge to other political parties is to show a real determination to use the present process, based on the Mitchell Principles, to bring about a political settlement acceptable to the great majority of people in Northern Ireland".
An uncompromising note was sounded by Republican Sinn Fein, the breakaway faction established by the former Sinn Fein president, Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh. In a statement, it said an IRA ceasefire would "expose as never before the Provisionals' reformist policy which seeks to make British rule in Ireland acceptable".
It claimed the Provisional republican movement was now seeking "only a New Stormont rather than a New Ireland free of British rule".