The SDLP has warned that Sinn Féin demands for the criminal records of IRA members to be erased would open the door for loyalist and republican paramilitaries to join the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The Irish Times has also learned that in negotiations with the British government, the SDLP is strongly resisting what it says is a Sinn Féin demand for the funding of "restorative justice schemes" which the SDLP fears are intended to operate independently of the PSNI and outside Northern Ireland's criminal justice system.
SDLP sources have told British officials and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern that they believe the proposal is intended to increase the IRA's control of republican and nationalist areas in the North.
The issue is now expected to top the agenda in talks between party leader Mark Durkan and British prime minister Tony Blair, scheduled for next month.
SDLP justice spokesman Alban Maginnis yesterday criticised Sinn Féin's demands to erase paramilitary records of IRA men as reckless, dangerous and self-serving.
"Sinn Féin in negotiations is pressing again for the criminal records of IRA men to be erased so they can join the PSNI," he said.
"This is something Sinn Féin have been seeking for years now. It is a reckless, dangerous and self-serving stance. The SDLP has consistently argued that people who have been involved in serious crime should not be allowed in the PSNI. Patten agreed.
"Sinn Féin's stance - which goes against Patten - would open the doors for loyalist and republican paramilitaries to join the police."
Mr Maginnis said the SDLP had negotiated that the police ombudsman could investigate past wrongdoing by police officers. "That has been vital to weed out human rights abuse," he said. "But how could it continue if at the same time, loyalist and republican paramilitaries involved in murder were let into the police?
"This is not what nationalists want. Nationalists have argued for the rule of law, not for rule by police killers or paramilitary killers."
Mr Maginnis concluded: "Yet again, Sinn Féin are putting their own wants ahead of the needs of the nationalist community. That's nothing new. It happened in the McCartney killing. It happened with the campaign to release the killers of Garda McCabe. It happened over the Colombia 3. It is happening now."