The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, has urged the Irish and British governments to press ahead with implementing the Belfast Agreement and joint declaration even while the North's political institutions are suspended.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin yesterday before meeting the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Durkan said that he welcomed the commitment by the two governments that the parts of the joint declaration "not dependent on acts of completion" would be implemented.
"However, we are concerned that there will not just be intent, but implementation," he said.
Referring to the prospect of fresh Assembly elections, he said that the British government had "got itself into a fix" by postponing the elections until Mr David Trimble's position had been "sorted and squared". It would be a very long time before that happened, and this was no way to run a peace process or a democratic process.
He warned that the "anti-agreement axis" was getting its act together as never before, so the pro-agreement side had to do likewise.
The SDLP delegation came to Dublin amid continuing concerns that a political vacuum is emerging in the North following the postponement of the Assembly elections, which were to have been held last month.
Discussions centred on the prospect of an Assembly election in the North in the autumn even if there was no final agreement on "acts of completion" such as an IRA statement that its activities were at an end and disposal of its weapons.