But Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Rev. Ian Paisley's hard-line Democratic Unionists, said the president was not welcome.

The Rev. Ian Paisley's hard-line Democratic Unionists dismissed the development as a "complete and total gimmick, not a complete and total cease-fire."

The meeting will also mark the first time since Ireland became independent in 1922 that hard-line Unionists, who did not attend the 1973 talks, have met Irish officials.

He was a hard-line Unionist; in 1906-10 he edited a monthly publication, Grievences from Ireland, which denounced all political expressions of Irish nationalism as treasonable.

Ulster Peace Pact in Peril Northern Ireland's hard-line Democratic Unionists emerged dominant after elections that deepened the sectarian divide and cast doubt over the future of the province's power-sharing government.

The largest Protestant party, the Rev. Ian Paisley's hard-line Democratic Unionists, has remained surprisingly quiet.

But hard-line Unionists considered him too conciliatory and cost him his seat at the general election In October 1900 by putting up a candidate to split the unionist vote.

In recent weeks leaders of the two main Protestant parties, the moderate Ulster Unionists and the hard-line Democratic Unionists, have condemned the framework proposals as described in reports.

But the hard-line Democratic Unionists, Ulster's largest party, threatened to boycott the negotiations in response to such moves as the reduction in the number of British soldiers in the province.

A call for his ouster came not unexpectedly from the Rev. Ian Paisley, head of the hard-line Democratic Unionists and a fierce opponent of the peace settlement.