THE BRITISH government stressed yesterday that the IRA could not "bomb their way" to all party talks, following the litter bin bomb attack in west London early on Saturday morning.
On the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme, Mr Michael Ancram, the Northern Ireland Minister, insisted that "no amount" of IRA bombs would make the British government change its stance.
"In order to be part of that democratic process you have to sign up for the principles of democracy. No amount of bombs is ever going to bomb the IRA or Sinn Fein's way to the negotiating table. They can only bomb their way away from that table. The first thing they have to do is to make sure unequivocally that the ceasefire of 1994 is restored."
A Scotland Yard spokesman described the bin bomb as a "small improvised explosive device" which bore similarities to the one planted in a West End telephone box last month and defused by anti terrorist officers. The IRA later claimed responsibility for that device.
However, no terrorist organisation has yet admitted planting the bomb, which exploded without warning outside a cemetery in Old Brompton Road, Fulham.
If the bomb was the work of the IRA, Scotland Yard admitted it was concerned there were no coded telephone warnings, which would support British security claims that the IRA is planning a "spectacular" campaign of bombing in Britain "without warning".