Sinn Fein has delivered its strongest criticism of the Hills borough Declaration. After a meeting of senior party officers yesterday, its chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said that Hillsborough represented "a massive change" to the Belfast Agreement.
"It is an attempt to rewrite important aspects of the Good Friday agreement, especially the decommissioning section so that the establishment of the institutions are on unionist terms.
"This is an unacceptable departure from the commitments given on Good Friday 1998. Sinn Fein's view is that the two governments should defend the Good Friday agreement."
The meeting was staged, the party said, to consider "the current political situation in the aftermath of the Hillsborough Declaration - a draft document, produced by the two governments, which Sinn Fein did not agree to and has been critical of".
Republican sources said that last night's statement from the UVF and the Red Hand Commando that they will not be handing over any weapons in the immediate future had eased the pressure on the Provisional IRA over decommissioning.
The two loyalist paramilitary groups ruled out making a gesture on decommissioning on the day of reconciliation as proposed by the two governments in the Hillsborough Declaration.
In what amounts to a rejection of the declaration, the UVF leadership told the BBC: "You can rest assured that the UVF and the Red Hand Commando will not hand over guns to get Sinn Fein into office."
The UVF said it would not change its position even if the Provisional IRA decided to make a gesture on decommissioning. Republican sources last night said the UVF's statement would actually strengthen Sinn Fein's position vis-a-vis the two governments when talks resume on Tuesday.
A senior republican source said: "This gives Sinn Fein more bargaining power with Dublin and London. Sinn Fein can now say, `How can you expect the IRA to decommission when the UVF have said that regardless of what the IRA does, they will hold on to all their guns?'
"If the UVF was willing to co-operate on decommissioning, Sinn Fein would be in trouble. The IRA would be out on its own adopting a very hard line."
Meanwhile, the day of reconciliation proposed by the two governments is an insult to the victims of the paramilitaries, according to the DUP. An Assembly member, Mr Ian Paisley jnr, yesterday condemned the Hillsborough Declaration's proposal for a collective act of reconciliation remembering those killed in the Troubles.
"Both terrorist protagonists and innocent victims of terror are to be treated with equal respect and honoured," he said. "This is akin to telling the war veterans and victims that they are no different from the Nazis they took on and defeated during the second World War.
"This is the most grotesque insult that I have ever witnessed that has been hatched on the people of Ulster. If we do not oppose this policy we will witness the freedom the Ulster people enjoy becoming history."