Talks on the future of the Belfast Agreement must be shut down if the Irish and British governments will not confront Sinn Fein over IRA activity, the Alliance Party said today.
The leader of Northern Ireland's cross community party, Mr David Ford, said the talks at Stormont were in "serious trouble".
And he also told colleagues at Alliance's annual conference in Templepatrick that significant changes needed to be made to the Agreement if it was to survive.
The South Antrim MLA recalled how in early 1998, in the talks leading to the Agreement, "Alliance took action to ensure that both Sinn Fein and the Ulster Democratic Party were temporarily excluded" over IRA and loyalist violence.
"The result was positive," he said.
"Violence was reduced outside and integrity was introduced inside the process.
"But this time, with no clear rulebook, only the governments can take action. If they aren't prepared to do so, they ought to be honest and announce that they are shutting down the review."
Irish and British ministers have been facing demands for sanctions against Sinn Fein in the talks after the attempted kidnapping last month of Belfast republican Mr Bobby Tohill from a city centre bar.
Northern Ireland police chief Mr Hugh Orde claimed the IRA was responsible for the attempted abduction. The Provisional IRA's leadership has denied authorising the incident.
The governments initially asked the four member Independent Monitoring Commission to bring forward its first report on paramilitary activity to May.
However there are indications the commission may report before Easter.