Dublin to seek explanation of latest shift in British policy

IRISH officials will be seeking immediate clarification of Mr John Major's plans for the peace process following his surprising announcement of a choice of two preconditions for Sinn Fein's entry to all party talks.

To the surprise of the Taoiseach, the Tanaiste and their officials, Mr Major said that there were two ways in which all party negotiations could "now be taken forward" which were consistent with the six principles set out in the International Body's report. The paramilitaries could make a start on decommissioning before such talks, he said, clinging to the Washington Three test, or the parties could secure a fresh Mandate for all party negotiations through elections specifically for that purpose.

The imposition of a new "election" precondition was greeted with dismay, even anger, in Government circles yesterday as the preliminary responses from most parties, including Sinn Fein and the unionists, indicated that Senator Mitchell's report had got over the hurdle of a hand over of arms prior to political talks.

A Government spokesman confirmed that, in discussions between Mr Bruton, Mr Major and officials on Tuesday to co ordinate the response of the two governments to the report, both sides had reaffirmed their commitment to the start of all party talks at the end of February and to hold a summit in mid February.

It now appears that Mr Bruton and Mr Spring were given only a broad outline of Mr Major's speech to the House of Commons shortly before it was delivered at 3.30 p.m. Official sources told The Irish Times that the British government, in all of its messages, had indicated that it would be, reacting positively to the report, "with some reservations". The, question of elections to an assembly or body, as proposed by the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, was referred only in a passing way in the telephone conversation between Mr, Bruton and Mr Major on Tuesday night.

Ten minutes before Mr Major rose to speak yesterday one key Government source believed that he might have been about to "indicate" his willingness to legislate for an elected assembly if all parties found this broadly acceptable.

While some sources were comparing Mr Major's speech to the "out, out, out" intervention by Mrs Thatcher on the report of the Forum for a New Ireland in the early 1980s, the Tanaiste and other Ministers refrained from making open references to the difficulties created for the peace process during their contributions in the Dail yesterday. They concentrated, instead, on the positive and fair minded proposals in the Mitchell report.

They were deliberately keeping their options open on whether Mr Major was merely covering his retreat from Washington Three or whether he had consciously replaced that roadblock with another one.

Notwithstanding the precondition attached to the election proposal, Mr Spring took the opportunity to spell out again his position on the idea of an elected assembly. Accepting that all these issues should be on the agenda for talks, he said "That includes the proposal for an elective process which, as the report points out would have to be broadly acceptable if it is to contribute to confidence or even, I would add, if it is to happen at all. That consideration means that it is for those who support the idea to persuade those who do not. The talks process is there for that."

A Government spokesman, on the other hand, could not confirm whether the Taoiseach had already heard Mr Major's speech to the House of Commons when he urged all parties in favour of an assembly to try to convince those who were not as to how it could be made broadly acceptable, have an appropriated mandate and be within the three stranded talks process. Mr Bruton was speaking during a prerecorded interview with RTE at about the time Mr Major was on his feet.

The Tanaiste's plans to hold a series of bilateral and trilateral discussions in the political track next week are likely to be put on hold until the latest dispute with the British government is resolved. Mr Spring had planned to explore with Sinn Fe in the means to be used to express their adherence to the six democratic principles outlined in the Mitchell report.