Sinn Féin was tonight no closer to resolving its current difficulties with the Northern Ireland peace process after a senior delegation held intensive talks with the British prime minister in London.
Party president Gerry Adams and Mid Ulster MP Martin McGuinness spent an hour and a half at Downing Street in discussions with Tony Blair which focused on the issue of an acceptable new police service for the North.
But as the pair returned to Belfast, a Sinn Féin spokesman insisted that the gap between what republicans are demanding and what the British government has offered remains as wide as ever.
"The meeting is clearly part of the very intense daily process of negotiations that has now gone on for four weeks," he said.
"Today's meeting concentrated very much on the issue of policing.
"It's our view that no nationalist or republican who wants to see the new beginning to policing envisaged in the Good Friday Agreement could agree to signing up to the position on the table at this time from the British government because there's no certainty that this would lead to a new, acceptable policing service."
The struggle to reach agreement on the new policing arrangements forms one of the three interlocking strands - together with the removal of Army watchtowers and IRA disarmament which have left the political process deadlocked.
Both Sinn Féin and the SDLP are holding out for more concessions before endorsing the new Police Service for Northern Ireland and agreeing to join the board which will act as a watchdog.
Among key republican demands are guarantees that the Police Board will not be overruled on any matters by the Northern Ireland Secretary, further retrospective powers to be granted to the Police Ombudsman to investigate past complaints against the RUC, the banning of plastic bullets, and the role of the 29 district police partnerships to be strengthened.
Mr Adams was expected to brief the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, later tonight, on the discussions with Mr Blair.
However, with British and Irish officials continuing behind-the-scenes talks in a bid to broker a resolution to the impasse, the Sinn Féin spokesman warned against further fruitless trips to Northern Ireland after last month's visit by both Mr Ahern and Mr Blair failed to achieve a breakthrough.
He said: "We have told the British that unless there's the potential for agreement, unless Mr Blair is coming here to close an agreement, he shouldn't come."
PA