Writing in today's News Letter, MP Jeffrey Donaldson said DUP concerns about the centre "have been addressed".

It emerged on Thursday night that after three-and-a-half years of negotiations, the DUP and Sinn Fein reached agreement over the future of the Maze and will start the ball rolling on the redevelopment of the site.

First minister Peter Robinson was out of the country on holiday yesterday but the Lagan Valley MP said the controversial conflict resolution centre, which his party had opposed in the past, would not be located in the former hospital wing where 10 republican prisoners died on hunger strike, but in a new building.

He also said the development of the centre would be managed by the Development Corporation which will consist of former military personnel, ex-police, ex-prison officers, unionist politicians as well as ex-republican and loyalist prisoners.

Mr Donaldson said his party has "ensured that there is no question of any shrine at the site".

"There will be proper oversight and scrutiny to ensure that any facility there is in line with the requirements for a shared future and not symbolical of our divided past," he said.

However other unionists, including the UUP, TUV and victims' campaigner Willie Frazer, have said that only if the remaining prison hospital and H-block were demolished they would be able to back the redevelopment plans.

Ulster Unionist Fermanagh MLA Tom Elliott said he had asked two DUP Environment Ministers to delist the buildings but said they had not acted.

A DUP spokesman responded to this yesterday that the buildings were originally listed by a direct rule minister and getting them delisted could not be achieved simply by the stroke of a pen.

Mr Elliott said he wished to find out a lot more about the finer details of the conflict resolution centre before being able to form a judgment on it but said demolishing the hospital and H block would "go a long way to help".

He criticised the scrapping of the Maze masterplan and said he couldn't see a "huge difference" between what had been proposed in it, adding it was a pity that the national stadium had been lost because of it.

"We are not aware of what any agreement between the DUP and Sinn Fein is, but I'm sure it will become clear as time goes on," he said.

"I believe the redevelopment of the Maze site could have been addressed some time ago and scrapping the original masterplan has cost millions as well as valuable time."

Meanwhile TUV leader Jim Allister has described the agreement between Sinn Fein and the DUP as "one of the most shameful climbdowns by the DUP since coming to power".

Mr Allister also queried why the DUP had changed their position from opposing a conflict transformation centre to supporting a conflict resolution centre.