Gerry Adams today denied Sinn Féin was dancing to the Democratic Unionist Party's tune on policing.
After a meeting in Downing Street with Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Adams rejected claims by former party member Gerry McGeough that Sinn Féin's move to endorse Sir Hugh Orde's PSNI had left them open to capitulating to the insatiable demands of the Reverend Ian Paisley.
Mr Adams also accused the DUP of juvenile posturing since his party's historic endorsement of policing at a special conference in Dublin last Sunday.
"Sinn Féin did what we did for republican reasons and for democratic reasons - not for the DUP. "We did what was for the common good and what was in the national interest.
"The implications of our decision are twofold. We need to get genuine civic democratically accountable policing, and the other is around the issue of political policing, where we need to address the fact that people involved in collusion may still be in the PSNI," he said.
"The DUP, I think, are just play-acting around some of these matters. I think that thinking republicans and nationalists will not be unfocused by what is plaintive posturing."
In recent days, Mr Adams has said, in response to DUP queries, that republicans should go to the police if they have information about the murder two years ago of Belfast father of two Robert McCartney and crimes such as rape, car theft, aggravated burglary and attacks on the elderly.
His party's decision to endorse policing was backed by over 90 per cent of the delegates who attended last Sunday's special conference and was welcomed by the British and Irish governments, who believe it could pave the way towards power sharing.
But the DUP has been more cautious. Party negotiator Nigel Dodds has expressed concern that there is still some equivocation by Sinn Féin on certain policing issues like the passing on of information about imminent attacks on the security forces carried out by hardline republicans.
PA