MR Gerry Adams has warned that if the British government insists on arms decommissioning ahead of all party talks then the International Body on Decommissioning cannot assist in breaking the political logjam.
The Sinn Fein president was somewhat circumspect, however, when asked during the weekend about a report of a potential Mitchell commission proposal that would rule out the need for some IRA decommissioning before talks.
Mr Adams said Sinn Fein would give serious consideration to the Mitchell commission's report, due to be published on Wednesday. "Whatever is in it, we will come to it positively."
Asked if he would rule out a situation in which staged decommissioning might take place after all party talks had begun, he said: "I am not ruling in or ruling out anything. I don't have weapons, or any authority or responsibility [for weapons]."
This was Mr Adams's response to a BBC report on Friday night which said it understood that the commission was anxious to recommend that the handing over of weapons before talks would not be insisted upon.
Instead, the International Body on Decommissioning was "hoping to suggest" that decommissioning would take place on a staged basis after round table talks had begun, BBC's Newsnight programme reported.
Sinn Fein's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said that the reported compromise sounded like "Washington Three by instalments", which would be unacceptable. Washington Three includes a British demand for some decommissioning before talks can start.
The commission's priority must be to remove the weapons precondition blocking all party talks, Mr Adams told BBC Radio Ulster on Saturday.
He said he agreed with Senator George Mitchell's recent comment that the commission in itself could not solve the disarmament problem.
"No matter what the senator says, if the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, insists upon the obstacle that he has put, then it is all to no avail," he said.
He did not accept that this was tantamount to demanding that the commission ignore British government and unionist concerns over arms and accept the Sinn Fein line on the issue. The various issues, including arms, could be thrashed out in all party talks.
Mr Adams said a number of times during the interview that Sinn Fein would be prepared to make compromises in all party talks.
"We all want to live together in a peaceful environment on the basis of equality. That will require; give and take by me, by those I represent, by the other parties, and by the British government.
"We are looking for talks in which we would put our views, and they would put their views, and somewhere in the middle of all of that discussion we will come up with some accommodation."
Mr Adams said that the removal of "all guns" was achievable. People should take time to consider how far the republican movement had travelled from its position two or three years ago.
At that time he could never have imagined republicans putting forward a submission as Sinn Fein had done to the Mitchell commission - that republican and loyalist paramilitaries would destroy their own weapons, in a verifiable manner.
He said that the unionist leaders, Mr David Trimble and the Rev Ian Paisley, did not have the courage to sit down in talks with Sinn Fein and the other party leaders to work out a political settlement.
Mr Adams also hinted, as has been reported, that he exerted influence on the IRA to stop or suspend killings of alleged drug dealers. The last such murder occurred on New Year's Day.
He said that, as far as he was aware, the IRA was not involved in these killings and added: "We all seek to develop alternatives to any sort of physical force reaction to these social [drugs] difficulties."
When asked what would happen if the current process collapsed, Mr Adams said he did not want to be seen to be making threats, but added: "Let me answer by quoting John F. Kennedy, who said `Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable'."
Mr Adams repeated his opposition to a new elected assembly, as proposed by the UUP leader, Mr Trimble.
Meanwhile, Mr David Ervine, spokesman for the Progressive Unionist Party, warned yesterday that Northern Ireland would be in "deep crisis" if the Mitchell commission failed to resolve the disarmament deadlock.
