Unionist and Alliance politicians have rounded on Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, for insisting that his party enters today's formal opening of the Stormont talks to "smash the Union".
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, whose party is boycotting the talks, said Mr McGuinness's comments, made at a republican rally in Coalisland, Co Tyrone, at the weekend, proved Sinn Fein had "not altered by a single degree" its goal of a united Ireland.
Mr McGuinness's remarks illustrated how "dim-witted" was the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, in claiming that Sinn Fein was implicitly accepting that any settlement would be a partitionist arrangement.
"There are no circumstances where Sinn Fein will accept anything by way of a British outcome to this talks process," he added. "Mr Trimble's inability to make a proper assessment of political events and his poor judgment have been a characteristic of his leadership."
The talks were based on the "Framework Document for a united Ireland" and it was not possible for the Union to come out of the process strengthened, or for a favourable unionist outcome to be achieved, said Mr Robinson.
The UUP had already dismissed Mr McGuinness's remarks, and yesterday the Alliance leader, Lord Alderdice, said: "Politicians who talk all the time about smashing things are only displaying their own destructive credentials.
"This process is not about smashing the Union, any more than it is about smashing Sinn Fein," he added. "The only things which will be smashed are the weapons of mass destruction which have claimed so many lives."
The former Alliance chairman, Dr Philip McGarry, said that while Sinn Fein's rhetoric was about peace and dialogue in reality it was a hardline nationalist party.
"Mr McGuinness says that Sinn Fein will smash the Union. We can recall over many years Ian Paisley claiming that the DUP would smash Sinn Fein. Sinn Fein is in reality a mirror image of the DUP. They are hardline green nationalists, and the DUP are hardline Orange nationalists," said Dr McGarry.
Mr McGuinness, while saying it might have been preferable to speak about "ending" the Union, maintained nonetheless that the republican goal was to achieve a united Ireland. "Sinn Fein is an Irish republican party. We believe that British rule should end, that there should be an end to the Union. We believe the Union has failed, that partition has failed, that the Northern state has failed," he added.
He indicated that the vehemence of his language may have been triggered by what he viewed as a "concerted campaign" by some journalists and politicians to "misinterpret" Sinn Fein's true position, and to convey the impression that it was about to accept a partitionist agenda in the three-strand talks which begin today.
Mr McGuinness said Sinn Fein was entering talks with clear republican aims while also being conscious that "not everybody will achieve everything that they are looking for".
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said "smashing the Union" was not language he would use. But he added that ahead of major political developments it was customary for parties to state emphatically their basic principles. He also believed that Sinn Fein's position had been "misrepresented" ahead of the talks.
Mr Sean Farren, a member of the SDLP talks team, appealed to the UUP to engage fully in roundtable talks with all parties including Sinn Fein. "A settlement cannot be achieved if the unionist leadership remains defensive and unwilling to fully explore how the totality of relationships within Ireland . . . can be resolved in the most positive manner possible," he added.
