THE multi party talks at Stormont have now reached agreement on "three quarters" of the rules and procedures, the leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, Mr Gary McMichael, told reporters. "Real progress has been made," he said.
The participants agreed yesterday on the basis for decision making on issues where unanimous agreement cannot be reached. Decisions can then be made if there is "sufficient consensus".
There will be three requirements to reach "sufficient consensus" on any issue: the support of parties representing a majority of the total valid poll in the Forum election, a majority of both communities in Northern Ireland as represented by the parties in the negotiations and, thirdly, a majority of the parties involved in the talks.
The last element in this "triple lock mechanism" was a crucial one, according to Mr McMichael. "It gives a fuller and more central role to the smaller parties," he said.
At the request of the chairman, Mr George Mitchell, all the par ties have submitted their views on the controversial issue of the status of the ground rules prepared for the talks by the Irish and British governments.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David, Trimble, said the ground rules issue had now become "largely symbolic rather than real". But he expressed concern at the "painfully slow" rate of progress.
He claimed that the two governments were "quite content" for the negotiations to be slow. "This ties in with the view of my colleague, John Taylor, that there's a desire on the part of the governments to spin things out until September so that we haven't done anything substantive, and then Sinn Fein can be, wheeled in," Mr Trimble said.
However, Mr Mark Durkan of the SDLP said he had "seen nothing in these talks to date that would indicate that the two governments are trying to spin things out".
There was praise for Mr Mitchell's performance in the chair from Mr David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party: "I don't think you'll get even those who are not keen on him to say anything other than that his capacity as a chairman is excellent."
The talks continue today: there has been speculation that that they might be suspended for the summer, with the dates July 19th to September 4th being mentioned.
According to Government sources yesterday's negotiations were low key and they were "making a small amount of progress here and there".
Participants in the last round of negotiations on the future of Northern Ireland in 1992 recalled that agreement on procedures then was even slower.