Sinn Fein's Mr Pat Doherty and Ms Michelle Gildernew are the only pro-Good Friday Agreement candidates capable of winning two key seats at the general election, party leader Mr Gerry Adams claimed tonight.
After talks between the SDLP and Sinn Fein today on a possible electoral pact broke down acrimoniously, the West Belfast MP insisted both candidates could win the key constituencies of West Tyrone and Fermanagh and South Tyrone.
Speaking before a briefing from Sinn Fein national chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin on the talks, Mr Adams insisted his party had not floated the idea of a 10-year electoral strategy as "a publicity ruse".
Sinn Fein had argued if there was a pact, the parties could win as many as 11 out of the province's 18 seats between them over the next decade - making gains from Ulster Unionist MPs in West Tyrone, Fermanagh and South Tyrone, North Belfast, South Belfast, Upper Bann and East Londonderry.
SDLP chairman Mr Alex Attwood claimed however, Sinn Fein had not presented a credible argument and it had only called for a pact after his party decided to field Stormont Agriculture Minister Ms Brid Rodgers as a candidate in West Tyrone.
Mr Adams said today until he had heard from Mr McLaughlin, it was not possible to say if the idea of a pact was dead.
Mr Adams criticised SDLP chairman Mr Attwood for being "unnecessarily belligerent" in his approach to the talks.
SDLP Assembly member Mr Eugene McMenamin said however, there was no point in moving away from the "politics of the past" through the Good Friday Agreement, only to form pacts which reinforced the divisions of the past.
PA