A Sinn Fein conference on policing in the New Year will have a knock-on effect for delays in Tony Blair and Bertie Aherne's timetable for power-sharing in Northern Ireland, they were warned today.
Following suggestions that Sinn Fein may not be in a position to hold a special conference to consider changes to its policing policy until next January, Democratic Unionist Policing Board member Arlene Foster claimed that could result in slippages in some of the deadlines set by the two Prime Ministers.
"My party was quite clear in the statement issued after our executive meeting on Thursday night that Sinn Fein have to meet its requirements on support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland, the courts and upholding the rule of law," the Fermanagh and South Tyrone Assembly member said.
"If Sinn Fein, as some reports suggest, cannot call a special conference on policing in January, then that will obviously have consequences for the timetable set out by the two governments."
On Friday Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern announced they would press ahead with the timetable for power-sharing set out last month after three days of negotiations with the Northern Ireland parties at St Andrews in Scotland.
The first key date in the timetable will be November 28th, when Democratic Unionist leader the Reverend Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness are due to be appointed in the Assembly as Shadow First and Deputy First Ministers.
However fears have been mounting in British and Irish government circles that that deadline could slip because of DUP concerns about Sinn Fein's inability to call a special party conference on policing.
The DUP insists Sinn Fein must join with other Northern Ireland Assembly parties in publicly endorsing the Police Service of Northern Ireland before it can be considered a credible partner in a power-sharing government.
Sinn Fein, which has refused to endorse the PSNI and encourage its supporters to report crimes to it, would need its leader Gerry Adams to convene a special conference through his national executive to change its policing policy.
Mr Adams, however, and other senior Sinn Fein leadership figures have since St Andrews negotiations claimed they are not yet in a position to be able to call a special conference.
In recent days Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness have said that there are a number of
issues on policing which still need to be resolved. These include securing agreement from the DUP on the date for the transfer of policing and justice powers from Westminster to Stormont and on the type of departmental model which will exercise those powers.
Sinn Fein has been alarmed by suggestions from the DUP's North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds that the transfer of powers may not be achieved for a political lifetime.
Martin McGuinness, in particular, has argued the devolution of policing and justice powers is essential if young republicans are to be convinced that a new policing culture has taken hold, free from political bias.
Opponents of Sinn Fein dispute the party's claim that there is political bias. Arlene Foster noted the two Prime Ministers had insisted the St Andrews plan for reviving devolution was based on two pillars - the DUP's willingness to share power and Sinn Fein's willingness to sign up to policing.
"If Sinn Fein cannot yet support the police, the courts and the rule of law, then it would seem to me that one of the twin pillars is missing," she said. "You therefore cannot have one pillar without the other."
PA