Anti-Agreement MPs issue warning to UUP

Ulster Unionists would be "committing electoral suicide'' if they fail to return to their Assembly election pledges of four years ago, the party was warned tonight.

Anti-Good Friday Agreement MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and David Burnside called on the party's ruling council to return the UUP to its vow not to sit in government with ``unreconstructed terrorists'' when they meet next month to consider if they should still share power with Sinn Fein.

Just hours after their leader David Trimble called for ``consultation, not confrontation'' at next month's crucial meeting, both MPs, who were granted permission by party officers yesterday to contest the next Assembly election, warned colleagues they would pay an electoral price if they remained in government with Sinn Fein.

``I believe if the party does not recommit itself to the 1998 election pledges it will be committing electoral suicide,'' Mr Donaldson said.

``I have always said before meetings of the Ulster Unionist Council we should reach consensus rather than confrontation and have endeavoured at past meetings to achieve this but we do have to face up to reality.

``The reality is that commitments given by us in the 1998 manifesto are not being honoured.

``We have to re-establish those commitments firmly as our bottom line and I see no reason why the party cannot achieve a consensus around the 1998 manifesto commitments.''

The UUP's manifesto four years ago, entitled Together Within the Union, welcomed the prospect of devolution but insisted if power sharing was to work,the party needed to ``ensure that all those elected to the Assembly were there on the same basis.

``There must be a clear and verifiable commitment by all that they are permanently committed to peaceful and democratic means.''

The UUP said the following criteria had to be fulfilled before it could agree to ministers from paramilitary-linked parties:

:: A clear and unequivocal commitment that ceasefires were complete and permanent; that the `war' was over and violence had ended

:: An immediate end to targeting, training, weapons procurement and so-called punishment beatings

:: The progressive abandonment and dismantling of paramilitary structures

:: No use of proxy organisations for paramilitary purposes

:: Disarmament had to be completed two years after the Agreement, with full co-operation with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning

:: The fate of the ``disappeared'' would be made known immediately.

The party also vowed: ``Ulster Unionists reiterate that we will not sit in government with `unreconstructed terrorists'.''

The UUP faces a bitter contest for votes with the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists at the next Assembly election.

Earlier today, David Burnside said, if selected, he would run as an Assembly candidate on the 1998 manifesto.

It also emerged Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble considered in July holding a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council on party strategy.

Unionists have expressed concern at allegations that the IRA has orchestrated street violence this summer in sectarian flashpoint areas of Belfast, that it stole sensitive security documents from Castlereagh police station in March and trained left wing rebels in Colombia.

In the latest act of sectarian violence, a 15-year-old Catholic youth was recovering in hospital after being struck last night on the head with a hatchet in Antrim town.

Mr Trimble said today: ``One of the things I was thinking of doing was actually calling a council meeting myself.

``Others have charged in. There is a danger they may turn what was meant to be a consultation into a confrontation - that's not what I want and I hope that is not what they want.''