A senior member of the SDLP yesterday launched unprecedented criticism of both the British and Irish governments' handling of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Mark Durkan, Finance Minister in the Northern Ireland Executive and a key negotiator of the agreement, accused the governments of "privatising and compartmentalising" it.
He also accused the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, and the Dublin and London administrations of being solely interested in the SDLP's attitude on the proposed policing reforms.
Mr Durkan also rejected Mr Mandelson's claim that the SDLP had adopted an "absolutist" position on policing and said the Northern Secretary had undermined his own position with regard to RUC reform.
"Either we are all in the agreement together or we are not. Either we have all made commitments in the agreement or we have not. There is no point in the British and Irish governments dealing with problems which originate from certain parties. That wasn't the way the agreement was negotiated.
"We in the SDLP would never have negotiated an agreement if the governments had adopted that approach in the talks. I would suggest that they go back to the template that gave us the agreement as the way of making sure we overcome the difficulties that now beset it," said Mr Durkan.
Responding to Mr Mandelson's criticism of the SDLP's "absolutist" attitude towards policing, the North's Finance Minister said his party's position was clear.
"If we had an absolutist position, we would not have accepted the Patten recommendations, so the fact that we supported them even though they differed from some of our own proposals proves we don't have an absolutist position. We want to see positive developments in relation to the prospects on policing."