Major's vision of Ulster peace

`An end to uncertainty and division' John Major `A one-way street to Dublin' Ian Paisley `Its ethos is for one Ireland' Gerry Adams `Above all, it's about peace' Gordon Wilson

The British and Irish governments yesterday launched, to nationalist approval and Unionist condemnation, the long-awaited Framework Document as the latest milestone in the Irish peace process.

Last night both governments were anxiously watching for signs that the Unionist grassroots would react in a more moderate manner than their political representatives, many of whom denounced it in intemperate terms.

John Major and the Taoiseach, John Bruton, launching the document in Belfast, both stressed that the principle of consent would safeguard Unionists from delivery into a united Ireland against their wishes. But the joint vision of Northern Ireland's future outlined in the document left little doubt that both governments firmly view the issue in an all-Ireland context. To Unionist dismay, the centrepiece of proposed new arrangments is a powerful cross-border body with an ever-expanding executive and harmonising and consultative powers.

The governments looked forward to ever-deeper London-Dublin links and co-operation, dashing any remaining Unionist hopes that the union with Britain would be strengthened.

Condemnation from the Rev Ian Paisley was to be expected, but more unusually the Sinn Fein president, Gerry Adams, so approved of the document that he issued an uncharacteristically fast response commending its "all-Ireland character" as an "explicit acknowledgement of the failure of partition and British rule in Ireland''.

Mr Paisley, by contrast, denounced "this monstrous and hideous Irish mutation" as "Ulster's death warrant disguised in honeyed words, negotiated with a hostile foreign government under duress from terrorist thugs''.

Reaction from the Ulster Unionist Party, however, was more diffuse, with a hard line from Ken Maginnis, the most moderate of the party's MPs, but an unexpectedly soft reaction from the normally more truculent John Taylor.

In Belfast, Presbyterian moderator Dr David McGaughey appealed to politicians and the public to read the document and respond "thoughtfully and truthfully". Representatives of loyalist paramilitary groups withheld instant comment, though there were private signs that they were taken aback by some of its proposals.

Intense public interest led to queues for the document at post offices, and thousands of calls ordering it from a government freephone number.

As all the DUP MPs and six of the nine Ulster Unionists, including James Molyneaux, the party leader, stayed away from Westminster, John Major told MPs in an assured Commons performance that he was "alongside 100 per cent of the people in Northern Ireland in believing it is right to take action to move out of the spiral of despair that has existed there and move towards a possibility where we might have permanent peace".

Mr Maginnis, normally seen as one of the least diehard Ulster Unionists, complained to the Prime Minister that he had set Northern Ireland back 10 years with "a dishononourable blueprint for an all-Ireland" and accused the Government of having "distanced itself from the 90 per cent of the people of Northern Ireland who have eschewed violence for the past 20 years".

Mr Major, in an impassioned and spontaneous response, went out of his way to say he understood the strong feelings of Unionist MPs but declared: "I cannot accept that it drives Northern Ireland back 10 years to try to seek a peace that may be permanently entrenched in Northern Ireland after generations of mistrust and hatred: that is the purpose that underlies all the actions that are here."

The depth of bipartisan support in Westminster for the documents was underlined when Tony Blair, the Labour leader, applauded the "courage and skill of the British and Irish governments" and pledged that the process would continue "whatever party is in government".

Mr Blair added that the agreement was the key to the door of the "house of peace" which had remained locked in Northern Ireland "for too many years".

Ministers treated with caution but some relief an enigmatic statement from Mr Molyneaux saying that "given the complexity of the so-called framework documents, it is clear that consultations thereon will extend beyond the lifetime of the present Parliament". Mr Molyneaux went on to call for an all-party group under Sir John Wheeler, the Northern Ireland security minister, "to accelerate terrorist disarmament".

David Trimble, Ulster Unionist MP for Upper Bann - who earlier had angrily walked out of a Channel Four studio in protest at the inclusion of an interview with a prominent Sinn Fein member, Martin McGuinness, on the same programme - said later that the documents were worse than his party had expected and urged the Government to begin afresh with the UUP's own limited proposals for a Northern Ireland assembly.

However, the pressure on the Ulster Unionists to participate in talks or face increasing isolation was increased last night by a muted but widely supportive reaction to Mr Major's statement from Conservative backbenchers, despite private unease among some Unionist-minded Tories.