Sinn Fein lines up to sign pledge on non-violence

Protestants yet to make decision on attendance

A Sinn Fein delegation is due at Stormont in Belfast today to sign pledges of non-violence which will act as the ticket for the republicans' formal entry into multi-party talks.

The signing ceremony, which may be boycotted by some Unionist parties, means Sinn Fein will have fulfilled all the conditions laid down by the British and Irish governments for inclusion in negotiations.

Much more problematical for the governments, because of Sinn Fein's entry, will be the position of the Ulster Unionist party. This, the main Protestant grouping, has yet to make a formal decision on whether to enter the talks proper which begin next Monday.

Protestant opinion seems clearly in favour of participation in the talks, but party leaders are unlikely to agree to meet Sinn Fein. The general expectation is that the party will go to the talks but refuse to sit in the same room as Sinn Fein.

Today the Sinn Fein delegation is to sign up to the six "Mitchell principles" formulated by the chairman of the talks, former US Senator George Mitchell. These affirm a commitment to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations, a renunciation of the use of force and agreement to abide by the terms of any new agreement reached in the negotiations.

Opponents of Sinn Fein have seized on the fact that the party is plainly not trying to persuade the IRA to decommission its weapons, and charge that the promise not to resort to force is meaningless. The familiar Sinn Fein response is that it is separate from the IRA and speaks only for itself.

The president of Sinn Fein, Gerry Adams, back from an American fund-raising tour, yesterday added the accusation that other parties which had already signed up to the Mitchell principles had in effect flouted them.

He said that loyalist groups, whose representatives sit in the talks, had carried out killings, and the RUC and British army had used plastic bullets - contradicting the principles.

A Sinn Fein delegation which yesterday met the minister for political development, Paul Murphy, complained of what it described as lack of movement in releasing republican prisoners as well as security force patrolling and searches.

The Government's proposed ban on foreign fund-raising by political parties could prove a significant blow to Sinn Fein, Labour MP Harry Barnes suggested last night, writes Anthony Bevins.

Mr Barnes, a member of the Commons select committee on Northern Ireland, reports that Sinn Fein have raised pounds 250,000 of their recent fund-raising visit to the States should concern all British and Irish democrats. Donors did not live in the UK or Ireland "and neither suffer nor enjoy the consquences of Sinn Fein's enhanced abilities to promote their message."