The Republican Sinn Fein president, Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, has said that regardless of whether an executive is set up at Stormont "British rule" will still be challenged in the North.
He said if the Provisional IRA decommissioned, it should retire. "If any army hands up its arms, it is no longer an army. It should simply disband," he said.
During his address to his party's ardfheis in Dublin, Mr O Bradaigh alleged the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, which security sources claim is linked to the "Real IRA", was diluting republican principles.
Referring to the British prime minister's comments that the constitutional issue in the North had been resolved, he said: "Other British prime ministers likewise boasted that they had `pacified' Ireland, but always another generation has arisen to dispute England's claim to rule in any part of our country.
"There are elements of the Irish, we hasten to assure Mr Blair, who cannot be bought off or co-opted into the British system, and the constitutional issue is never resolved short of an end to English rule here."
Mr O Bradaigh claimed attempts had been made to discredit his party "by linking us in the public mind with groupings such as the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the Irish Republican Socialist Party", the INLA's political wing.
But there had been no formal discussions with either group nor joint strategy considered. There were deep ideological differences, with his party alone rejecting the Mitchell Principles on non-violence, the Downing Street Declaration, the Framework Documents and "the 26 County partitionist assembly at Leinster House".
Several RSF members have left the party in recent months, and some Continuity IRA members have united with "Real IRA" activists to form a new organisation, Oglaigh na hEireann.
According to media reports, the bulk of CIRA's membership has switched allegiance to the new group. Mr O Bradaigh claimed "certain parties" had attempted "a take-over bid". He implied that this was motivated by the public reaction to the Omagh bomb.
Mr O Bradaigh questioned the republican credentials of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement and the "Real IRA". "There are those who have detached themselves from the Provisionals who still accept the 26-county state, the first step on the way to constitutionalism and counter-revolution," he said.
"Some of those who have learned nothing from such experiences - repeated five times over in this century - have indicated publicly that they want to 'take over' our movement. We reply once again that we are not for sale or take-over by any group with one foot in the constitutional grave."
Mr O Bradaigh rejected the Patten report on the RUC. "Once more British rule is being updated in an attempt to make it more acceptable to nationalists and internationally. We warn: the leopard does not change its spots. Instruments of imperial and colonial rule remain just that."
He welcomed his party's decision to open an office in Belfast for the first time. "As we have said before, we are not going home. We are digging in. We are here for the long haul," Mr O Bradaigh said.