Sinn Fein has declined to say if the party will participate in the review of the implementation of the Belfast Agreement, restating instead its fear that Ulster Unionists will use the review to delay the process.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said members of the party leadership had refused to take a firm decision on the review, but he added that Sinn Fein would engage in private talks with the UUP over the coming weeks in a "concerted attempt" to find a way forward.
Speaking yesterday at Stormont, Mr Adams claimed the UUP did not want change "except on its own terms" and asserted that the Ulster Unionist position of "no guns - no government" was beyond the terms of the Belfast Agreement. A "sharp and focused" review was necessary he added.
Mr Dermot Nesbitt, the senior UUP negotiator, said his party also wanted a short review, concentrated on the impasse over arms decommissioning and the formation of an executive. His party stood ready to "jump together" with Sinn Fein in order to overcome the impasse. "We want to see a positive outcome. We want to see democracy restored to Northern Ireland. We want to see an inclusive form of Government," but democratic principle must be upheld, he said.
Mr Adams warned that if the review failed, the UUP had proved the North was ungovernable. "The Good Friday agreement in our view provides the only way forward. It cannot be renegotiated at the behest of unionism. For us, it is the absolute bottom line."
The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, "holds the key" to the success of the peace process, according to Mr Adams.
He urged the two governments to continue implementing other aspects of the agreement, such as the equality agenda and demilitarisation.
"The macho Afrikaner elements within unionism are challenging the British government and that is a challenge Mr Blair will have to take up," said Mr Adams. "We will assist positively and progressively everyone in this process - provided there is no renegotiation of the agreement."
Addressing the arms issue, Mr Adams said Sinn Fein acknowledged the obligation to work in good faith to bring decommissioning about but stressed that excluding the party over the issue was "totally unacceptable".
He did not comment on speculation that the Florida-based gun smuggling ring uncovered in recent days was bringing in arms for the Provisional IRA.
Later, when the prosecutor of one of the defendants in the case said the arms were for the Provisional IRA, a Sinn Fein spokesman took the line that it had yet to be established for whom the guns were. "Certainly no one from Sinn Fein was involved," he added.
Commenting on Sinn Fein's refusal to say if it would participate in the review, SDLP MP Mr Eddie McGrady said it would be "short-sighted" for it not to engage in the process.
Mr McGrady said it was contradictory for Sinn Fein to pull out of a review, as it was provided for in the Belfast Agreement which it supported. He forecast Sinn Fein would take part. "It is not only appropriate but necessary in the current climate for the parties to engage with each other in order for us to find our way out of this difficulty," he added. The deputy leader of the DUP, Mr Peter Robinson, said he believed Sinn Fein was not eligible to take part in the review. "The process was set up under the principle that only those exclusively committed to peaceful and democratic means could take part. Sinn Fein/IRA are not so committed, so they should not be taking part."
Mr Esmond Birnie of the UUP said his party was "very anxious to get a transfer of power to a soundly based and inclusive executive." He added: "This is emphatically not about any unionist distaste for having Catholics about the place."