Relatives for Justice called on Senior Coroner John Leckey to compel the officers to appear if he decides to proceed with the inquests after a preliminary hearing on Tuesday.

The killings sparked years of legal battles and controversy over allegations that police deliberately shot the men without trying to arrest them.

But Mr Leckey is reconsidering them because court rulings appear to have given inquests wider powers to obtain evidence. He will discuss the prospects for new inquests with lawyers for the PSNI and the families of the dead men.

Six of the seven deaths being considered by the Coroner happened in November and December 1982. The seventh occurred in 1992.

Four IRA men, two INLA members and a 17-year-old youth died in the shootings.

IRA members Sean Burns, Eugene Toman and Gervaise McKerr were shot outside Lurgan.

Three policemen, who claimed the IRA men crashed through a checkpoint, were tried for their murders, but Lord Justice Gibson declared the officers " absolutely blameless".

Michael Tighe was shot in a police ambush inside a hayshed near Craig- avon where IRA explosives were stored. MI5 made an audio recording of the shooting, but it was never released and may no longer exist.

The youth had no security record or convictions and his family were paid compensation for his death.

In the third shoot-to-kill incident, INLA members Seamus Grew and Roderick Carroll were shot in a car outside Armagh. The policeman who shot them was tried and acquitted.

The seventh killed was IRA member Pearse Jordan, shot in a stolen car by an RUC officer in Belfast.

Mark Thompson, director of Relatives for Justice which represents some of the families, said: "It is the intentions of the families to ensure that effective and transparent accountability with regard to the killings of their loves ones is achieved during these inquests."