Leaders of two key nationalist parties in Northern Ireland said Saturday they were determined to press ahead with a peace initiative, but the British government remained cool.
John Hume of the moderate Social Democratic and Labor Party and Gerry Adams, head of the Irish Republican Army's political wing Sinn Fein, said they had held another round of talks to discuss Britain's attitude toward their scheme.In a statement issued in Belfast, Hume and Adams said they were convinced that their proposals, details of which have never been made public, remained the best solution to a 25-year conflict that has killed 3,000 people.
"The most pressing issue facing the people of Ireland and Britain is the question of lasting peace and how it can be achieved. We remain committed to this peace initiative and to the creation of a peace process which would involve both governments and all parties," it said.
Officials said Prime Minister John Major had spoken to Irish Prime Minister Albert Reynolds Saturday and there was no question of Britain or Ireland adopting or endorsing the outcome of talks between Hume and Adams.
"The prime minister and the Taoiseach (Reynolds) were emphatically clear in their Oct. 29 joint statement in Brussels that there could be no question of the two governments adopting or endorsing the outcome of the Hume-Adams dialogue.
"Any proposals which come from only one side of the community or which do not fully take into account all the interests of both sides are fatally flawed," one official said.
The Hume-Adams statement was issued amid renewed efforts by the British and Irish government to forge a political settlement acceptable to the province's 1 million Protestant majority, which wants to stay British, and its 500,000-member Catholic minority.
Britain says it will not talk to Sinn Fein or give it a place at any future peace talks until the Irish Republican Army stops waging war against British rule.