Sinn Féin will sign up to the new policing arrangements in Northern Ireland after the next Assembly election, Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble said today.
His comments came 24 hours after Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams indicated his party would hold a special meeting of its members if it believed the climate was right to sign up to the Policing Board.
Mr Trimble noted their leadership had vowed: "No return to Stormont. They are in Stormont. No partitionist settlement - they signed up to a partitionist settlement.
"Mr Adams wouldn't speak to the chief constable. Now he can see circumstances where he can.
"We are going to get another Sinn Féin U-turn and I think you will see it teed up for the aftermath of the May elections and they will do it in response for a few fig leaf gestures in terms of legislation".
With the Government promising nationalists legislation delivering more police reforms during the next session of Parliament, the First Minister claimed Mr Adams was looking for a way of nominating members of his party to the board, which holds the new police service accountable.
The Upper Bann MP said: "But the crucial thing is this: it is wholly inconsistent and incompatible for him to be on the Policing Board and for paramilitarism to continue".
PA