THE position of the loyalist fringe parties at the multi party negotiations was secured yesterday after it became clear at a plenary session of the talks that none of the other participants would formally seek their exclusion.
As the talks convened yesterday morning, the Northern Minister for Political Development, Mr Michael Ancram, indicated on behalf of the British government that he did not believe the PUP or the UDP had breached the Mitchell principles of democracy and non violence.
As he entered Stormont for the talks, he said: "What we have to evaluate is whether the participants here had demonstrably dishonoured the six Mitchell principles to which they signed up at the beginning of this process.
"I do not believe that to be the case, but obviously I will want to hear what the other parties have to say.
He pointed out that his government had said last week that it would be looking at what was happening on the ground. "We will continue to evaluate that position. There can be no double standards - those who are here must be here on the basis that they are all honouring the commitment that they made".
Mr Nigel Dodds, of the DUP, said he was not surprised at the decision. The British government had been operating double stand for the immediate entry of Sinn Fein into the talks.
A UDP spokesman, Mr David Adams, said he welcomed the government's decision. "I think it is quite obvious, not only to the participants within the negotiations but to the public at large, the part that our parties have played in sustaining the loyalist ceasefire and, in fact, in trying to ensure that there is a peaceful resolution standards for some time, he declared.
"The government, and the Irish Government and the SDLP, have been keen to bring about circumstances in which the IRA and Sinn Fein could come into the talks with their weapons intact and on the basis of a bogus and spurious ceasefire," he said. But the DUP would not sit at such a table with the IRA.
The Sinn Fein national chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, in a statement later, also accused the British government of practising double standards in excluding Sinn Fein from the negotiations. He said the Irish Government and the SDLP should now be arguing of our problem," he said.
With the issue of UDP and PUP participation seemingly settled for the moment, the talks will focus today on the decommissioning issue, which has become deadlocked and is holding up progress.
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, accused the Irish Government and the SDLP leadership of being primarily responsible for the deadlock and said he hoped they would take "a more reasonable approach to things".
They should realise, he said, that the reality was that "there is no commitment to peaceful means on the part of Sinn Fein/IRA". Their priority, therefore, should no longer be Sinn Fein, but getting into serious talks with the parties present.
Mr Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the SDLP, said the chances of progress had been very substantially diminished by the way in which the talks had been handled, by the attitude of some parties to them, and by the way they had not been able even to complete the opening agenda.
Before going into the talks, the independent chairman, former US senator, Mr George Mitchell, indicated that he is keeping his options open on whether to introduce his own proposals in an attempt to find a solution to the decommissioning problem.
"I think it is unwise and not useful to engage in hypothetical discussions about what may or may not occur," he said.