The Democratic Unionist Party is standing in the way of the majority which wants political progress on the basis of the Belfast Agreement, the Sinn Féin president said last night.
Mr Gerry Adams was speaking in Washington after a meeting with President George Bush's special envoy, Dr Mitchell Reiss.
The West Belfast MP said the DUP had to realise the "new political reality" that equality and all-Ireland institutions, which were supported by the electorate, would not be negotiated away.
"The impasse at this time in the talks process is the DUP's failure to accept the fundamentals of the Good Friday agreement and their failure to accept nationalists and republicans on the basis of equality," Mr Adams alleged.
"In particular, they have targeted the power sharing and all-Ireland principles of the agreement. The core issues were negotiated and agreed in the Good Friday agreement," he stated.
"There will be no going back on these positions. That is the new political reality which the DUP has to come to terms with. The pro-Agreement majority cannot be expected to stand still while the DUP edge their way into the 21st century."
The Sinn Féin president said the DUP's "refusal to engage and to accept the reality of the Good Friday agreement cannot be allowed to paralyse the process of change". There was no official US comment after yesterday's meeting, perhaps an indicator that no ground-breaking progress was made. A US government spokesman told The Irish Times last night that the talks were part of ongoing discussions with all the parties and the British and Irish governments.
The spokesman said the Bush administration remained fully supportive of the two governments in the efforts to break the impasse. Dr Reiss joined the parties and governments at Leeds Castle in England in September for intensive efforts to reach agreement.
His next visit for talks has yet to be announced, but The Irish Times understands he could be in Ireland as early as next month. The timing of his visit could prove critical if the British and Irish governments opt for a fresh effort to restore the Stormont institutions. British and Irish officials are continuing to prepare proposals to be put to the parties perhaps later this month.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said earlier this week it would be tragic if no progress were made within the next two weeks. He warned that prospects for progress could be put off until 2006 if current opportunities were not grasped. But the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said he would not accept a "rag-bag" of a deal.
The SDLP has also returned to its criticisms of the DUP and Sinn Féin over the failure to find agreement. The party's senior negotiator, Dr Seán Farren, said the two governments should proceed without what he called the "problem parties" if they could not agree.
As he augmented the SDLP plan for civic commissioners to run the Executive pending full restoration of Stormont, Dr Farren said: "It is important that the dog-in-the-manger attitude of the problem parties should not be allowed to hold everything up. Progress does not have to be made only at the extremes."