The Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, Mr Andrew Mackay, has said he will hold talks with Sinn Fein within weeks. He said there were no plans for the party leader, Mr William Hague, to meet Sinn Fein representatives.
Mr Mackay told The Irish Times yesterday he was "slightly bemused" by comments by Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, on the fringe of the Labour Party conference on Tuesday, when he said he would welcome the "opening of dialogue" with the Conservatives.
Mr Mackay said his office had been in contact with Sinn Fein about a meeting in London in July, but due to diary commitments, a Sinn Fein representative could not attend.
"Our position is that we have no respect for elected politicians who in practice have not renounced violence or carried out decommissioning of illegally held weapons," he said. "However, that does not necessarily exclude me, perhaps, meeting some of those politicians and in fact, my staff and Sinn Fein representatives have been in constructive contact about a meeting." He said he had not ruled out meeting the political representatives of loyalist paramilitaries.
Asked if Mr Hague would meet Sinn Fein leaders in the future, Mr Mackay said: "Let's see what happens with the meeting and get that under way."
He said he would impress on Sinn Fein his party's commitment to the Belfast Agreement and would tell them the Conservatives expected Sinn Fein to fulfil all its obligations under the agreement. When that process was under way, the Conservatives would not object to Sinn Fein taking its places in the executive.
A Sinn Fein spokesman said a meeting had yet to be confirmed. "We would prefer to meet party leader to party leader, but if Andrew Mackay is delegated, we will look at that closely. I'm sure we would do the meeting."
Mr Mackay dismissed SDLP criticism that he had never spoken to the party, insisting he regularly met SDLP MPs in the House of Commons and intended to meet Assembly members when he visited Northern Ireland.