Impending legal action against him today prompted SDLP leader Mark Durkan to try to defuse a growing row over policing.
Mr Durkan is being sued by Alan McQuillan, the deputy director of the Assets Recovery Agency, over a controversial newspaper advertisement on policing in Northern Ireland. The Foyle MP blamed missing quotation marks around key words for the action against him.
The advertisement in the Irish News related to the SDLP's role in the selection process which led to former Metropolitan Police officer Sir Hugh Orde being appointed as Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Mr McQuillan, at the time an Assistant Chief Constable in the PSNI - who had served in the RUC which preceded it - was one of those on the short list for the job.
Amid the continuing controversy over allegations of collusion between RUC officers and loyalist paramilitaries Mr McQuillan launched libel action over what he saw as derogatory references to him being part of what the advertisement called the 'old RUC order'.
Mr Durkan , speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme, insisted the advertisement did not link Mr McQuillan with collusion as the SDLP did not suspect that - and Mr Durkan said he reaffirmed Mr McQuillan's good reputation.
He said the advertisement had been wide ranging and denied a number of allegations against the SDLP, largely by Sinn Fein.
"We were actually refuting what was a constant Sinn Fein refrain in recent weeks that when the SDLP went on the Policing Board, and with all we had done on the Policing Board, we had accepted and endorsed the 'old RUC order'.
"It was partly rebutting that language used by Sinn Fein, and so those words should have appeared inside quotation marks."
PA