The DUP emerged from its first joint meeting with the Irish and British governments at Hillsborough today insisting that the political process could not be put on hold until republicans came up to the mark.
DUP leader the Reverend Ian Paisley said Sinn Féin could only be part of the democratic process if it fully embraced democratic principles. "When they become an open democratic party and have left aside the guns and killings, then they can enter the talks," he said.
Emerging from his talks with the Mr Ahern and Mr Blair, UUP leader Mr David Trimble insisted there had to be some form of sanctions if the IRA is found in breach of its ceasefire.
"In the event of there being a negative report by the monitoring commission on any paramilitary organisation, then the recognition of that organisation ceasefire should be withdrawn and the Northern Ireland Office should be prepared to examine on a case-by-case basis whether members of that organisation who benefited from early releases should return to prison."
Mr Blair tonight said neither government wanted to exclude any party from the political process. However he added: "We go forward on the basis that we have set out but there has to be a clear understanding that the route into an inclusive democratic executive is to abide by democratic politics.
Mr Ahern noted that every party they met at Hillsborough raised the issue of paramilitarism. The Taoiseach warned against a political vacuum prolonging the political deadlock in Northern Ireland.
"The present vacuum is not a satisfactory situation," he said. "It cannot be allowed to continue indefinitely. We would prefer ourselves not to be pushed into that position."
Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams criticised the two leaders for focusing primarily on the issues of the IRA and whether unionism was willing to share power.
He said the governments still needed to face up to their responsibilities under the Belfast Agreement which had still not been implemented.
He also said his party wanted to explore the DUP's position through direct dialogue with the Mr Paisley's party.
"I wrote to Mr Paisley shortly after the election and I still haven't yet got a reply," he said.
"It's a bit of an absurdity that they will now go into television studios with us, they will now debate across a table with us in a very public manner but won't sit down at this point and discuss those matters.
"We want to believe that unionism wants this process to work, so we are open to be convinced and want to explore the DUP's position."
Nationalist SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the issues holding up the return of devolution had to be addressed soon by all sides.
"We cannot keep going round and round the roundabout that we are on," the Foyle MLA said.
"There must be no more questions about other parties' intentions or positions, whether it is on the issue of paramilitarism or the full workings of the institutions or the full delivery and full participation of all other aspects of the Agreement on things like human rights agenda, the policing arrangements or anything else."