Members of the Reverend Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists were today urged to use their appearance at an Anglo-Irish parliamentary body to find common ground with their foes.
The appeal was made by Arthur Morgan, a Sinn Fein member of the Dail, ahead of today's start of the British Irish Parliamentary Body, an organisation that draws is members from the parliaments and assemblies of the British Isles.
A DUP delegation including deputy leader Peter Robinson is due to engage with the group tomorrow in Killarney, Co Kerry, with a presentation of its case.
However the DUP is insistent its decision to take part in the event is not a u-turn on its boycott of the Parliamentary Body which was formed in 1990 as a result of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
Mr Morgan said: "Along with all of the other members of the Parliamentary Body, I welcome the decision of the DUP to attend this session in Co Kerry.
"However the DUP need to use this platform to find common ground, to engage with political foes, to seek to build confidence amongst the vast majority of people who want to see the Agreement work and demonstrate that they are up for inclusive powersharing.
"If the DUP are simply going to travel the length of Ireland to grandstand for the media then an opportunity will have been lost.
"Time is pressing on and we are only a matter of weeks away from the reconvening of the Assembly on May 15th.
"The time for grandstanding from the DUP has long since passed." The DUP, Sinn Fein and other Northern Ireland Assembly parties have been given an absolute deadline of November 24th to form an inclusive powersharing government.
Initially when the Assembly is recalled on May 15th, they will be given six weeks to try and form a devolved government but are expected to be given one more try before November 24 th.
The Democratic Unionists, however, have insisted that any decision by them on whether they should go into a government which includes Sinn Fein at Stormont or not, will be determined not by deadlines imposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair and Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.í