THE two main unionist parties were divided in their response to the British Irish proposals for next Monday's all party talks. The Ulster Unionist Party was cautious and guarded, while the Democratic Unionist Party was caustically dismissive of former Senator George Mitchell's role in the process.
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, while allowing that Senator Mitchell had produced a "very good" report on decommissioning, reserved judgment on the British Irish paper, "neither approving, nor disapproving" the proposals.
He said he first wanted to meet Senator Mitchell and Gen John de Chastelain before deciding whether their roles were acceptable.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said the British government had caved into Dublin by giving a top role to "Clinton croney, George Mitchell". While he was outraged and angry at the statement, the DUP nonetheless would be at the talks to defend the union, he added.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, was scathing of Senator Mitchell's role. "What degree of impartiality can unionists expect from a Catholic Irish American from the same stable as the Kennedys?"
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, promised his party would approach the British Irish talks proposals "positively and constructively". The party "will be examining this on the basis of whether it contains the necessary dynamic to move this process into meaningful and substantive negotiations which will lead to real political and constitutional change", Mr Adams said in a statement issued last night.
Mr Adams said it was too early to make a definitive response.
"We will have to study the document in greater detail, but I do not expect a ceasefire before Monday", he said.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Home, said he hoped the IRA was now seriously considering what was agreed by both governments yesterday and he hoped its response to it would be a positive one.
Speaking on RTE's Prime Time programme last night he said that "what Sinn Fein asked for has now been agreed, comprehensive talks with an open agenda, to which all parties can come, and all must come in a totally peaceful atmosphere".
He asked the IRA, in its consideration of the matter, to respect the wishes of the Irish people at home and abroad. "Massive international goodwill" could be brought to bear on the problem in the North "and bring real benefit to all sections of our people, especially on the economic front", he added.
The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said he was reassured by the US administration's involvement in negotiations through Senator Mitchell.
Mr Robert McCartney of the UK Unionist Party said he hoped to meet Mr Trimble and Dr Paisley to discuss a common unionist approach to the talks before they begin. Mr McCartney also expressed reservations about Senator Mitchell. His political background, with its connections to President Clinton, the Kennedy's and the US Democratic Party, could be described as "being more akin to Irish nationalism than to pro British unionism", he said.
The Alliance Party leader, Dr John Alderdice, welcomed the roles being played by Senator Mitchell, Gen de Chastelain and Mr Holkeri. However, he sounded a pessimistic note about the future of the talks. "People should not readily assume that because you have a capable chairman that there is any guarantee of success. The parties from both sides have a capacity for intransigence which should not be underestimated," he said.
"I think now there is little reason to be optimistic about taking the gun out of politics in Ireland," said Dr Alderdice.
Mr Trimble wamed that his party "would not accept either George Mitchell or Gen de Chastelain in this process until we had the opportunity to meet them, and to assure ourselves that they would be acting as purely independent persons, and that their involvement in it would be to ensure the implementation of the Mitchell Report as a whole".
He said he wanted assurance that Senator Mitchell's objective would be the implementation of his report. That required "a clear commitment to actual decommissioning and a clear commitment by all parties to democratic procedures".
And he warned that if the governments were to allow either Senator Mitchell or Gen de Chastelain to act as a "political supremo then the two governments "will have another think coming".
The two governments could put forward proposals but at the end of the day it would be the parties who would decide a resolution of the process.
Mr Gary McMichael, leader of the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), said his party would have no difficulty subscribing to the Mitchell principles on non violence and democracy but it was an "absolute nonsense" to expect loyalists to disarm unilaterally.
Mr Ciaran McLaughlin of the Irish Republican Socialist Party the political wing of the INLA said the talks would be a "non event".
Mr Ruairi Og O'Bradaigh of Republican Sinn Fein said that regardless of who was involved in all party talks, the real victors in the process was the British government.
The Workers' Party's Northern chairman, Mr Tom French, welcomed the British Irish proposals for talks and warned that failure to make progress at negotiations would be viewed as "yet another let down" by the electorate.