The president of Sinn Féin, Mr Gerry Adams, signalled his expectation of a newly intensive political focus on Northern Ireland, following talks with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, at Chequers yesterday.
Mr Adams told a Westminster press conference that his discussions with Mr Blair had been "very frank".
He said the political process in the North was "in deep crisis", with this week's report by the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) having contributed "a new and added dimension to it."
He said that Sinn Féin rejected and resented "attempts by the two governments to penalise our party". Apart from having left him with "a sense of our feeling", Mr Adams made no claim to have persuaded the prime minister on the question of the IMC's allegation of Sinn Féin complicity in continuing republican paramilitary activity.
"I would have to characterise that part of our discussion as one on which we have profound disagreements," he said.
The Sinn Féin president again described the British government's refusal to proceed with a public inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane as "totally and completely unacceptable".
And he added that, while the controversial murders involving alleged security force collusion with loyalist paramilitaries may have taken place during the lifetime of previous governments, the continued failure to act meant that the Blair government "is increasingly getting the blame."
Mr Adams said: "No government is infallible and its actions or inactions can make matters worse."
In that overall political context Sinn Féin agreed with "the logic" of Mr Blair's desire to move the process forward and the prime minister's repeated assertion that "if it doesn't go forward it will go back."
Dismissing government "spin" about the resumption of the formal review of the Belfast Agreement next week, Mr Adams reiterated that the review was "about housekeeping" and "will not resolve these issues."
The Sinn Féin leader said Mr Blair must refocus on the peace process to prevent it sliding further into "crisis".
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