Sinn Fein brought into Ulster talks

Mowlam to Hold First Meeting with Sinn Fein

The way for the meeting was cleared after a two-hour discussion between government officials and Sinn Fein delegates at Stormont's Castle Buildings in Belfast.

It was the first official meeting with Sinn Fein since the restoration of the IRA ceasefire. The delegation included Gerry Kelly, a former IRA terrorist convicted of the Old Bailey bombing and the Sinn Fein chairman, Mitchel McLaughlin.

The Sinn Fein vice-president, Pat Doherty, said they had sought reassurances that substantive negotiations would go ahead with or without unionists on September 15.

"We want to see the unionists there, if they are not, the door should be left ajar for them, but we should proceed anyway," he said.

"If the unionists are serious about real and meaningful negotiations, then they should focus like the rest of us on the date that has been set," insisted Mr Doherty.

The issue of prisoners was also raised, but the focus had been on preparing the ground for next week's meeting with the Secretary of State, he added.

Meanwhile, a plenary session of the Stormont talks today is expected to be adjourned amid uncertainty on the future of the peace process.

The sides will return to Castle Buildings in Stormont on September 15. But with two of the Unionist parties pulling out in protest at Sinn Fein's entry after the restoration of the IRA ceasefire, plans by London and Dublin for an immediate start on substantive negotiations once the summer recess ends must be in doubt.

Even though the two governments' disarmament proposals have been rejected, David Trimble's Ulster Unionists have pledged not to withdraw. But at this stage his party is not prepared to sit at the same table as republican representatives.

They are still looking for some sort of guarantee that the IRA will begin to hand over some of their guns when the full negotiations begin.