Questions to the Sinn Fein president concerning his party's relationship with the IRA took up the first session of the talks. The questions were put to Mr Gerry Adams by Lord Alderdice, leader of the Alliance Party, the only significant non-nationalist party present.
ein's response was, Later, Lord Alderdice said Mr Adams had replied in much the same way that he fielded similar questions from the press.
When journalists had asked earlier about the IRA/Sinn Fein relationship, Mr Adams said his party represented only its voters and did not speak for the IRA.
He reiterated that Sinn Fein had affirmed the Mitchell Principles on non-violence. The two-hour session was largely devoted to questioning Mr Adams. Only a few questions were put to him by the Government representative.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke, said he had asked ein leader, Mr Adams about last week's statement in An Phoblacht in which the IRA said it had problems with the Mitchell Principles.
Mr Burke said: "Gerry Adams addressed the issue fully and I fully accept his contribution to the meeting.
"I want to say that as far as the IRA ceasefire is concerned the two governments, a fortnight ago, accepted on the basis of the advice that we got from our security forces that not only was the ceasefire being honoured in the letter but it was being honoured in the spirit in that there had been no shootings, no bombings, no targeting taking place, no movement of arms that any of the security forces can trace.
"The IRA have honoured it to the letter and the spirit and it is very important that the talks process that we are engaged in at this stage provides us with an opportunity because of a loyalist and IRA ceasefire. It is the first time since the Treaty that we have the possibility of moving into substantive talks very, very shortly."
Lord Alderdice said later that the Sinn Fein leader's answers were "at a tangent" to the questions and he said his party would pursue the matter again.
Lord Alderdice had hoped Mr Adams could have supplied information about Sinn Fein's relationship with the IRA.
He was referring to the fact that several Sinn Fein figures at Stormont have served prison sentences for IRA-related offences.
A delegation of more than 20 Sinn Fein members attended yesterday's session and a party spokesman said it was its intention to maintain at least this number at the talks. It reflected its commitment to the process, he said.
Yesterday's Sinn Fein delegation was almost as large as the rest of the delegations put together.
Other parties present yesterday included the SDLP, Women's Coalition and the small Labour group.