Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern's hopes of achieving power sharing in Northern Ireland by March will be dashed if Sinn Féin fails to endorse the police by the end of next month, Britain's shadow Northern Ireland secretary has warned.
As he prepared to meet community leaders in Belfast's loyalist Shankill area on a fact-finding visit, Conservative MP David Lidington, called on Sinn Fein to change its attitude to the police by January 30th.
He said: "My view is the end of January is a critical time for this process. I find it very hard to see how devolution can happen in March if Sinn Féin has failed to endorse policing wholeheartedly by the end of January.
"Sinn Féin has been dragging its feet on this issue for far too long. It needs to catch up with everyone else who has recognised that policing has changed," Mr Lidington said.
Sinn Féin is facing demands from other political parties in Northern Ireland as well as the British, Irish and US governments that it should support the PSNI.
The Democratic Unionists insist without such a move there will be no power sharing at Stormont.
But Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams insists he cannot hold a special conference to change its policing policy without agreement on a date for the transfer of justice and policing powers to Stormont, details of the department that will oversee security and assurances that MI5 will have no role in civic policing.
But the DUP has warned Mr Adams there will be no transfer of powers without republicans moving first to endorse the police.
PA