Nationalists in Northern Ireland are to hold a face-to-face meeting next week on a possible joint electoral strategy at the next British general election, it was disclosed tonight.
Sinn Féin national chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin announced he had received a letter from his SDLP opposite number Mr Alex Attwood agreeing to talks next Tuesday on the Westminster election.
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Mr McLaughlin, who was chosen as his party's candidate last night to contest the Foyle seat at the General Election, welcomed the meeting which was also confirmed by an SDLP spokesman.
The Sinn Féin MLA said: "I wrote to the SDLP asking them to meet with Sinn Féin in order to discuss a co-ordinated approach to maximising nationalist representation in the forthcoming election.
"Initial media responses from Mr Attwood appeared to reject this proposition. However, this afternoon we received a letter from the SDLP agreeing to meet with us next Tuesday.
"I believe the vast majority of nationalists and republicans will welcome this initiative by Sinn Féin and the SDLP response to it and will be awaiting the outcome of Tuesday's discussions."
The SDLP and Sinn Féin have failed to forge electoral pacts in the past despite calls from some in the nationalist community for agreed candidates.
Nationalist hopes are high in the forthcoming election of building on the three seats currently held by the SDLP and two by Sinn Féin.
Sinn Féin and the SDLP are targeting Ulster Unionist held seats in West Tyrone, Fermanagh and South Tyrone, North Belfast and South Belfast.
But both parties are engaged in a bitter battle for the West Tyrone seat currently held by anti-Good Friday Agreement Ulster Unionist, Mr William Thompson.
Stormont Agriculture Minister Ms Brid Rodgers has switched constituency for the SDLP in a bid to overturn Mr Thompson's 1,161 majority at the 1997 General Election over the party's candidate Mr Joe Byrne.
Sinn Féin vice-president Mr Pat Doherty's hopes of winning the seat were, however, boosted when the party's combined vote for its candidates in the 1998 Assembly elections polled more than any other party.
A split nationalist vote will boost Mr Thompson's chances of regaining the seat as the sole unionist candidate.
SDLP chairman Mr Attwood today hit back at Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams' claim that Ms Brid Rodgers' candidacy was a spoiling tactic to prevent his party from taking the seat.
Mr Attwood argued there was Mr Adams' argument was inconsistent, "calling for agreed candidates on one hand and calling for increased republican votes especially in constituencies held by SDLP MPs on the other.
"By their own rationale is Conor Murphy not a spoiler in Newry and Armagh? Is Mitchel McLaughlin not a spoiler in Foyle? Which party was it that split the nationalist vote and allowed (the Rev Ian) Paisley to top the poll in the European elections?
"Sinn Féin are entering the territory of political hysteria.
"They haven't got the argument or the candidate to take on the likes of Bríd Rodgers in West Tyrone or Alban Maginness in North Belfast and have reverted to the politics of narrow nationalism, pointing the finger and dismissing strong arguments and strong candidates."
PA