Ulster Unionists have dismissed Sinn Fein's call for assurances on changes to policing legislation as a smokescreen for their lack of movement on arms.
In briefings yesterday, a senior Sinn Fein source insisted that the British government provide republicans with a script of promised amendments to legislation if the policing issue was to be resolved.
The party has identified 20 areas in the Police Act that require amendments in order for legislation to mirror the original recommendations of the Patten Commission. However, Sinn Fein was rebuffed by Mr Dermot Nesbitt of the UUP, who accused republicans of trying to trick society with "nothing more than a smokescreen deliberately designed to cover up their failure to honour their obligations on decommissioning".
The UUP minister, Sir Reg Empey, currently carrying out the duties of First Minister following Mr David Trimble's resignation over IRA arms, said he was neither optimistic nor pessimistic about the possibility of a breakthrough with the British and Irish governments' package.
"It's a very simple exercise. Either we're going to have actual movement on disarmament of paramilitary organisations or we're not. And if it doesn't contain that then it doesn't really matter to unionists what the rest of it contains," he said. Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist MP the Rev Martin Smyth called for a united unionist front against the proposals.
The deputy leader of the DUP, Mr Peter Robinson, also stressed it was time for unionists to pursue a different strategy that could deliver progress and not an "ever-increasing Sinn Fein/IRA wish-list".
Mr Mark Durkan, of the SDLP, who is Finance Minister in the Executive, said yesterday that the package designed to break the political deadlock should be put to the parties involved as soon as possible. "We are concerned the possibilities the package itself might offer could be undermined just by the delay there is in putting it in a sensible and credible way in front of all the parties," he said. An SDLP delegation met members of the Labour Party, Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, and the Progressive Democrats in Leinster House yesterday to brief them on the situation and the party's position.
Mr Durkan said: "Obviously we are concerned that we are in a situation where the agreement is in difficulty, where there clearly is a shortfall in implementing the agreement in a number of areas, not just in relation to decommissioning. But the shortfall in decommissioning is significant. What we have advocated for a long, long time is an approach that rounds up all of the issues and tries to round up all of the pro-agreement parties in support of a comprehensive approach that deals with all of those issues."
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, yesterday heard eyewitness reports of loyalist intimidation in north Belfast from a number of nationalists led by Mr Gerry Kelly, of Sinn Fein.
Mr Cowen expressed his "grave concern" at the incidents and said he had sought reports from Foreign Affairs officials in Belfast.