The Ulster Unionist leader and First Minister of the new Northern Assembly, Mr David Trimble, has said he thinks it "possible that Gerry Adams could be a Michael Collins".
But he criticised the Sinn Fein leader for what he saw as a failure to seize the opportunity presented by public reaction to the Omagh massacre to advance the political process. "After Omagh, it is easier for Adams to move. There was outrage universally about the bomb. His own supporters were up in arms. But we have had nothing," Mr Trimble told the New Statesman.
"Even the INLA has now said that it has declared an end to the war. But Gerry Adams hasn't said this. He has condemned the bomb, and I have recognised that. But he has not said the war is over. And we need to have that from them before we can move on."
Describing Mr Adams as a cautious leader who was careful not to advance too far ahead of his support base, Mr Trimble said: "I recognise he has problems if he wants to move. It will be very hard for him. But it is hard for all politicians here. That is politics. He has signed up to an agreement and that has consequences."
In suggesting a comparison between the political approach of Mr Adams and Michael Collins, Mr Trimble acknowledged that he believed Mr Adams to be concerned about avoiding the same fate as Collins, who was assassinated in 1922. But he said it was in the interests of the mainstream republican movement to decommission, because they could not expect to keep all their weapons and explosives out of the hands of splinter groups such as the `Real IRA'. "We cannot work with them if they are not prepared to decommission."
On the Dublin administration, he said: "Bertie Ahern is a practical man, interested in practical measures. I would say that this government is no longer concerned with ideology and harking back to the dictates of the past, perhaps the first Irish government really to be so."
He expressed some disappointment with the level of SDLP pressure on republicans: "They must argue with them, make the case for decommissioning. They have tended to draw back from doing so, reluctant to make a breach in nationalism."
Meanwhile, a UUP spokesman played down a Belfast Telegraph report that senior unionists had told the British government the party would not now endorse the Belfast Agreement and that the shadow executive would not be set up.
The report quoted UUP minutes of a meeting on August 6th between a party delegation and the North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram. It said the UUP's Mr Reg Empey had told Mr Ingram: "As things stand at present, the UUP would not endorse the agreement, and there is no chance of the executive being formed."
The spokesman said the report was correct but the quotes should not be taken out of context. "The view within the group on August 6th - and you must remember that this was over three weeks ago - was that we were playing our part in the implementation of the agreement and republicans were not. On that basis we couldn't see the agreement operating properly."