THE ANGLO Irish liaison group of officials will attempt today to set out a detailed agenda for political and decommissioning talks which are scheduled to follow the opening of all party negotiations on June 10th.
At a meeting in Dublin, they will also assess Sinn Fein's response to Mr Major's article in yesterday's Irish Times, particularly the mixed signals about the prospect for a restoration of the IRA ceasefire.
As Government and Opposition leaders were unanimous in insisting that there was now a compelling case for restoring the ceasefire, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Adams, asserted that he would not go to the IRA "on the back" of Mr Major's article.
The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, told the Dail that Mr Major's "necessarily more brief article" should be analysed in conjunction with the assurances he gave in his recent speech in Finglas, which were based on specific agreements negotiated between the Irish and British Governments.
Any agreement reached, he said later in the day, "as well as not being an internal settlement, but north south and east west as well, will be put in the form of an international agreement between Britain and Ireland."
Describing Mr Major's article as "another important building block in what we are trying to achieve", the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, rejected Sinn Fein suggestions that what would take place on June 10th would not be the first day of all party talks but a decommissioning conference.
Mr Adams told a press conference in Dublin that he "presumes that the British and Irish governments will have to work out in the coming weeks how they remove decommissioning as a blockage" to all party negotiations.
He also said, however, that he happened to agree with the British Prime Minister on the matter of decommissioning not being allowed to block the negotiations. This was the most important part of what he had written, so "let's see if we can build on what he has said", he added.
While there were "good things" in Mr Major's article, he continued, he had ignored most, or fudged some, of the issues addressed in the Taoiseach's Finglas speech or the Tanaiste's very pertinent remarks" on decommissioning.
Mr Adams's bottom line was that he was not going to speculate about whether the IRA was going to respond or in what way it was going to respond.
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr Trimble, said there were ambiguities in Mr Major's statement, particularly in regard to how decommissioning would be addressed and agreement reached on taking it forward.
His party would be seeking, at the outset of the negotiations, agreement and commitments by all the parties to decommissioning in parallel with talks. If those agreements and commitments were made, then of course the issue could be taken forward without being an obstacle, he added.
The SDLP leader, Mr Hume, said that Mr Major's article was "interesting and positive". The Prime Minister had made it clear that the talks would be comprehensive, with an open agenda, and that there would be no imposed settlement. He had also suggested that there should be an effort to set a time limit on the talks.
Meanwhile, the task now facing the two Governments, through the liaison group, is to plan what one source described as the "choreography" of the negotiations. There is a general acceptance that the first day of the talks, in the event of an IRA ceasefire, could proceed fairly calmly with opening statements from all of the participating parties.
The Governments are now concerned, however, to map out the agenda for a few days, at least, to minimise the chances of an early logjam or breakdown. The preparation of agenda are believed to be important for this reason.
It is understood that agreement has not been reached yet on the potential role for Senator George Mitchell in the negotiations. Two options are being considered by the Irish Government at this stage: that he would chair the Strand 11 talks covering NorthSouth relations; or the parallel decommissioning talks.
