The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said yesterday it was "inconceivable" that the Chief Constable of the RUC, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, would not advise the Northern Secretary, Ms Mo Mowlam, that the killings of the past few days were a breach of the IRA ceasefire.
He indicated his party would press strongly for Sinn Fein's removal when the talks resume in Dublin on Monday. "There is no way it is going to be business as usual on Monday," he told a news conference in London. "It would look as though the first day of the talks in Dublin will be devoted to the expulsion of Sinn Fein from the talks because of the murders committed by the IRA."
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, also signalled that if IRA involvement was proved, it would be the end of Sinn Fein's involvement. "It is the case that the rules must be applied in respect of any organisation that's bound to engage in paramilitary activity, so you can't have one set of rules for one group of people and others for another," he said.
In the Commons, Ms Mowlam indicated that Sinn Fein would be treated in the same way as the UDP, expelled last month over murders by the Ulster Freedom Fighters. If a link to the killings was "reliably established", the government would not hesitate to act to determine whether Sinn Fein had "demonstrably dishonoured" its commitment to the Mitchell Principles.
"I will do as I have done before," she told MPs. "When the RUC and the Chief Constable come to me with the facts we will act. We have done so before and we will do so again."