MR JOHN HUME and the British government have again clashed over proposals for an elected body in the North as a route to all party negotiations.
Downing Street sources insisted the election plan was "still very much in play" following Mr Hume's latest trenchant rejection of the idea. Speaking on BBC television yesterday, Mr Hume said "Electing 90 people to negotiate your future isn't going to work."
And he repeated his previous insistence that similar attempts had failed twice before, making the problem worse in the process.
The SDLP leader was speaking after further indications that London's preferred model is for a 90 member body, meeting only occasionally in plenary session, conducting its primary business through a series of committees. This scheme accords closely with previous ideas outlined by the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble.
The British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, plans to issue a consultative paper detailing how the proposed electoral process would work, following his promised intensive round of talks with the political parties and the Government. This emerged after a warm and friendly" one hour meeting yesterday between Mr Major and a DUP delegation led by the Rev Ian Paisley.
However, the suggestion in Whitehall last night was that such a consultative paper might emerge only after "consensus" had been established. And government sources stressed Mr Major did not have "a fully fledged plan".
Mr Hume's intervention revealed the fledgling nature of the consensus thought to be emerging between London and Dublin on the electoral route to negotiations. And British sources last night appeared to play down any imminent agreement between the British and Irish governments.
Whitehall sources said the idea of "proximity talks" advanced again yesterday by the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton had not been taken any further forward. One senior cabinet minister told The Irish Times he had doubts about such a scheme and said he did not think unionists would be prepared to travel to Dublin for talks with Irish ministers.
Senior British and Irish officials in the liaison group will meet tomorrow in London, and it is understood that there are plans for a meeting of the `Chilcott/Dalton' group originally set up to address the decommissioning issue.
Tomorrow's meeting will focus on the possibilities for "intensive" or proximity" talks serving as a clearing house for various ideas as to whether and how an elective process could lead to direct negotiations, and on the critical question of the rem it for such negotiations.
It is believed tomorrow's meeting will focus on the Mitchell report recommendations for decommissioning in parallel with any negotiating process and the incorporation of Mitchell's six principles' in any process which Sinn Fein might join provided the IRA reinstates the ceasefire.
It remains unclear whether the British government intends to proceed with elections regardless of any such decision by the IRA.
. In a TV broadcast last night, the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, underlined the message that Sinn Fein cannot participate in ministerial talks until "it is plain beyond doubt that they have genuinely given up violence for good".
He, said that all democratic parties in Ireland, both North and South, believed the future of Ulster must be determined by the consent of the people there.
"Sinn Fein must now play by the rules of democracy or not at all," he said.