MR John Major is expected shortly to detail the tests necessary to bring Sinn Fein into all party talks. The party, the Irish Government and the SDLP want decommissioning sidelined as a precondition, but unionists believe yesterday's discovery of landmine preparations in Co Derry will make it difficult for the British prime minister to risk such a strategy.
It was also learned yesterday that about 300 Sinn Fein delegates are to attend a special conference in Co Meath on Saturday. A party spokesman said the conference would discuss "conflict resolution processes".
Previously there had been reports of a planned IRA convention designed to give the go ahead for a permanent IRA ceasefire. But the spokesman said the gathering would not be a cloak for an IRA convention.
The Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, and the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, will discuss the latest developments when they meet tomorrow at an Anglo Irish Conference meeting in Belfast.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, said ceasefire speculation was "moonshine". He said the British government must now make clear its position on how and when Sinn Fein might be allowed into talks. The government must also provide details of its "behind the scenes contacts" with the republican movement through the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, and the Irish Government, he added.
Mr Trimble did not accept that the UUP had hardened its position on decommissioning, despite an Irish Times report that the party would demand the handing over of a "sizeable tranche" of weapons before Sinn Fein could be admitted to substantive negotiations. This was the consistent UUP position, he indicated.
The party's security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, said yesterday's discovery was a "poke in the eye" for the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, who favoured Sinn Fein's entry into all party talks in the event of an IRA ceasefire.
The discovery of the landmine material outside Derry city proved that the IRA was not planning a ceasefire and that there was no "de facto" ceasefire operating, as one Sunday newspaper had reported. The IRA had not the "slightest intention" of abandoning its campaign of violence.
"I tend, after 25 years of terrorism, to be dismissive of those who are so naive as to believe that the IRA has not got a strategy of violence designed to take them into the next millennium", Mr Maginnis told BBC Radio Ulster.
The discovery also added weight to the hardline position of the DUP and the UK Unionist Party, who are opposed to dealing with Sinn Fein and who have also been dismissive of the ceasefire reports.
Mr Hume, in an interview on BBC Radio Ulster, said he was still hopeful of a renewed IRA ceasefire. He added, however: "I cannot place it on a higher level than hope at the present time."
He said he would continue working with Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams to seek inclusive all party talks and an unequivocal resumption of the IRA ceasefire.
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, the party chairman, accused unionists of fearing genuine talks. "They are frantically creating obstacles in an attempt to prevent any such progress", he said.
