Dr Mo Mowlam has said claims that IRA weapons have fallen into the hands of dissidents "confirm the need for decommissioning of all weapons" and for urgent political progress.
Amid reports that loyalist organisations are rearming - and under growing Conservative pressure to halt prisoner releases in response to paramilitary assaults - the Northern Ireland Secretary yesterday acknowledged that the peace process was going through "a rough time".
However, she said that the loyalist and republican ceasefires remained intact, and called on all sides "to show the determination, flexibility, courage, and just sheer guts needed to move this process forward".
Westminster's bipartisan approach to the North came under renewed pressure yesterday, when Lord Mayhew, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, accused the Blair government of paralysis in face of paramilitary attacks.
Dr Mowlam told her predecessor: "I will continue to make a judgment in the round as to whether ceasefires are still intact . . . I will review it constantly. When I reach a decision based on evidence, not hearsay, I will let people know. But up to now, the short answer is that we need to implement the Good Friday agreement in full, make political progress."
Lord Mayhew, in an article in the Daily Telegraph, disputed Dr Mowlam's interpretation of the legislation governing prisoner releases. He said he feared that "through ill-conceived legalism and misjudgment" the government was letting "a crucial lever" slip through its hands. Halting prisoner releases for IRA, UVF and UFF prisoners, he argued, would result in prisoners insisting on an end to the paramilitary attacks.
He insisted all three organisations were failing to fulfil two of the four tests set for the Secretary of State in making a judgment as to whether an organisation qualified for inclusion in the prisoner release programme.