The British government will face opposition from Sinn Fein if its proposals to restore devolution in Northern Ireland diminish the Belfast Agreement, the party's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said today.
Mr McGuinness sounded the warning after it emerged Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy had intended to tell delegates at the British Labour Party conference yesterday that the North's political institutions must adapt to different circumstances.
Sinn Fein chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness
Mr Murphy collapsed at the conference centre in Brighton yesterday just after Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech and just before he was due to deliver his.
He is believed to have suffered from heat exhaustion and has taken time off to recuperate.
In the speech, which was published last night, the Northern Ireland Secretary appeared to signal the Britihs government was considering changes to the way power sharing institutions would operate in the future.
The speech said: "The Agreement was designed to grow prosperity from peace.
"But its fundamental purpose, of course, was to be the roots of a new peace, a new politics and power-sharing for Northern Ireland.
"That requires the institutions of the Agreement to develop.
"They must be vital and responsive to changing circumstance, not sculpted from stone, beyond amendment or improvement.
"And the Agreement itself allowed for such growth. That's why it had an in-built review mechanism."
Mr Murphy's speech said the current talks could not alter the fundamentals of the Belfast Agreement.
But the talks had also pointed the way to how the Assembly and the cross-border institutions could be improved, he would have said. With nationalists resisting Democratic Unionist Party proposals to make ministers more accountable in a future Stormont Executive, Mr McGuinness told ministers the British government could not bring about changes on its own.
"The Irish Government and the political parties have ownership of the Agreement also," Mr McGuinness said.
"The British government has not yet shared its proposals with Sinn Fein.
"Sinn Fein will not support changes which will alter the fundamentals of the Good Friday Agreement.
"We will oppose any attempt to diminish the Agreement. We look to the Irish Government to do the same."
Mr Murphy's comments were welcomed by Mr David Ford, leader of the cross-community Alliance Party which - along with the Rev Ian Paisley's DUP - has been pressing for changes in the way the Assembly will operate.