Northern Ireland politicians were today embarking on an Assembly Election Campaign with British Prime Minister Tony Blair warning he could pull the plug at any stage before polling day.
Mr Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday decided to press ahead with plans for a March 7th election.
After their meeting in Downing Street, however, the two warned the election must result in a power-sharing government.
"The Assembly Election, due to be held on March 7th, is an integral part of the process and timetable agreed at St Andrews," they said.
"It is being held for the explicit purposes of endorsing the St Andrews Agreement and of electing an Assembly that will form a power-sharing executive on March 26th, in accordance with that agreement and time-frame.
"If, at any point, it became clear that parties were unwilling to fulfil their commitments in the St Andrews Agreement to the twin pillars of power-sharing on March 26th and support for policing, it would be unreasonable to expect the people of Northern Ireland to continue with an election to an Assembly which would not exist."
The notice for an Assembly Election in Northern Ireland was published today, marking the start of what could potentially be a fierce campaign.
The Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) will be hoping to remain the largest grouping in the next Assembly, with their leader becoming First Minister if the party is convinced it can form a power-sharing government with Sinn Fein.
The DUP has signalled it will only share power with Gerry Adams' party if it is sure the IRA has abandoned paramilitary activity and criminality for good and Sinn Fein is actively encouraging its supporters to join and work with the police.
A report yesterday by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) said the Provisional IRA was moving decisively away from criminality and into politics.
Sinn Fein's decision at the weekend to support the police in Northern Ireland for the first time in its history and further comments from Mr Adams urging republicans to report crime and join Sir Hugh Orde's Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) if they wanted to, has added more pressure on Mr Paisley to say yes to power-sharing.
Sir Reg Empey, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader, said the question which the DUP will have to answer during the election campaign is whether or not there will be power-sharing as envisaged on March 26th.
On the nationalist side, Sinn Fein will go into the election buoyed by its leadership's success in persuading rank and file party members to sign up to policing in Northern Ireland.
The party, which has in recent years overtaken the SDLP as the largest nationalist grouping in the Assembly, believes it can make further headway and will eventually become the largest party in Northern Ireland.
Sinn Fein's party machine will go into the election already firing on all cylinders, having undertaken a huge internal consultation on policing and in anticipation of the General Election this year.
Mark Durkan's SDLP will, however, trade blows with Sinn Fein on policing, its support for Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Hain's local government reform plan and argue that neither Mr Adams' nor Mr Paisley's parties can be trusted to deliver political progress.
PA