Ian Paisley's determination not to 'talk to Sinn Féin' does not contradict his party's election pledge to engage in negotiations for a new agreement, the DUP has insisted.
On Thursday Mr Paisley rejected any suggestion that any member of his party would speak to Sinn Féin when he said: "My party's not talking to Sinn Féin. And anyone who does will be put off my party."
To emphasise the point, he grabbed the lapels of the journalist who had asked the question. But throughout the election campaign, and within the last two days, other senior DUP figures have been more non-committal about the possibility of face-to-face talks with republicans.
During the election campaign, East Derry candidate Gregory Campbell, said it that if a settlement was going to work, all sides at the negotiating table would have to be equal.
"That means no IRA violence, that the IRA has to fold up its tents and go away," he said.
"Everybody has to be treated as equal. No one can have a private army in negotiations, and then they can take part in negotiations on creating political institutions which are acceptable to everyone."
He added: "Sinn Féin needs to demonstrate that violence is a thing of the past."
But despite the apparent contradictions, a DUP spokesman last night said its policy on talks with Sinn Féin "remained clear".
"We will not talk to Sinn Féin in the present circumstances, not at this time, when the fact is that they are inextricably linked to the IRA, as Mr Blair has stated."
Asked under what conditions the DUP would to talk to Sinn Féin, the party spokesman said: "That is a hypothetical situation which I cannot answer."
The DUP was founded in 1971 by the Co Antrim evangelical minister Ian Paisley and the MP for Shankill, Desmond Boal.
The new party was declared as "right wing in the sense of being strong on the constitution, but to the left on social policies".
From the late 1970s the DUP emerged as a strong competitor in every election it contested: at local level, Westminster and European.
DUP members including its leader, Ian Paisley and fellow MP, Peter Robinson, attracted criticism in the early 1980s for their association with shadowy organisations the Third Force and Ulster Resistance.
Allegations that both groups became associated with loyalist paramilitaries still haunt the party, although the DUP leadership has always maintained that it severed links to both organisations shortly after they were formed.
In terms of its electoral fortunes, throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s the DUP remained in second place to the Ulster Unionist Party.
In 1997 Willie McCrea lost his Mid Ulster seat to Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness by around 1,800 votes.
By 1998 and the signing of the Good Friday Agreement the DUP was openly opposing the deal and voted against it in the referendum.
In the following assembly elections the party picked up 20 seats compared to the UUP's 28 assembly members.
By 2001 the DUP had five MPs at Westminster, with Nigel Dodds winning in north Belfast, Iris Robinson taking Strangford and Gregory Campbell winning in East Derry.
Speaking last night the DUP's Gregory Campbell said as a result of its latest election success his party now spoke for the majority of unionists.
"What is absolutely certain is that we are the largest party. Nobody can dispute that," he said.
