Mr Gerry Adams this evening described as negative and provocative comments from UUP leader Mr David Trimble rejecting the IRA statement on arms.
Earlier today Mr David Trimble said a failure to get the IRA to disarm will be a "great dark stain" on the Irish and British governments' records. He suggested that he favoured a suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly if it would lead to a move on IRA arms.
Mr Trimble lashed out at the two administrations and claimed their strategy could see an eruption of new violence.
He said: "If the Agreement is lost because the governments did not defend its underlying principles and values - above all, the principle that society here should be free from the threat of political violence - then there will be a great dark stain on the governments' record."
But speaking after a meeting with Northern Secretary Dr John Reid at Hillsborough, Mr Adams said he had made it quite clear that the British Government should not suspend the institutions.
"We also put it to him that if the British Government intend to suspend [the institutions] they need to calculate the affect upon nationalists and republicans and the affect that it will have on the confidence and the integrity of the Agreement and the integrity of the institutions," Mr Adams said.
He added that the process is 'at a crossroads' this evening and it was the responsibility of the British Government to be the defenders of this agreement.
Later, SDLP leader Mr John Hume said that with the scheme to start decommissioning IRA weapons now in place, all parties and both governments must now fully implement the Good Friday Agreement. He added: "Given the reality of the alternative, which is the destruction of the institutions, who in their right mind would make that choice?"