MR MARTIN McGuinness has expressed confidence that the next British government, which he expects will be a Labour administration operating with a substantial majority, will be prepared to do business with Sinn Fein.
He also appeared to suggest at a press conference in west Belfast yesterday that new lines of contact have been opened between Sinn Fein and the British government and the British Labour Party.
Mr McGuinness said that since the end of the IRA ceasefire there had been no public or private contact between the party and the British government. But nonetheless there was "considerable hope" that the next government would engage with Sinn Fein.
Mr McGuinness was asked if his confidence was based on concrete assurances, particularly in light of the recent article by Mr Gerry Adams in The Irish Times which has been interpreted as a coded message to the British government.
Asked if there had been contacts with the British government through an intermediary, or if Sinn Fein had been in contact with the Labour party in the expectation of a new Labour government, Mr McGuinness said he did not want to ",speculate" on such matters.
However, he added. "We obviously, as a political party, attempt at all times to maintain as much contact as we possibly can with all interested parties to the present situation, and we will continue to do that, and I don't intend to expand on those comments."
Mr McGuinness indicated that discussions between Sinn Fein and a new British government would take place following a renewed IRA ceasefire.
"I think that that Labour administration will be very acutely aware of the very serious mistakes that were made by John Major in the course of this process.
"I think all of us will have to revisit all of the work that we were involved in the lead in to 1994. The objective of the exercise will be to guarantee absolutely that all of the stalling and delaying and messing about that went on are over," he said.
Mr McGuinness said a weekend newspaper report that Sinn Fein's talks negotiator, Mr Gerry Kelly, had held talks with Northern Ireland Office officials was untrue.
A spokesman for the Northern Ireland Office and the Labour shadow Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, also said yesterday that there has been no contact with Sinn Fein since the breakdown of the IRA ceasefire in February 1996.
Mr McGuinness said that after the British general election there would be "much more realism" on how the peace process could be moved forward.
"It is not unrealistic to state at this stage that there should be, in the aftermath of the general election, immediate discussions between Sinn Fein and representatives of the British government with a view to opening up a credible process of peace negotiations, against a background of a peaceful environment," said Mr McGuinness.
Mean while, Mr Gerry Kelly warned that any early release of the two Scots Guards jailed for life in 1994 for the murder of Belfast teenager Peter McBride could damage the peace process.
