Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Mr Mark Durkan
has warned British Prime Minister Tony Blair not to damage the devolved political institutions in the North when he speaks in the House of Commons next week.
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Mr Durkan said the achievements of the Stormont Assembly were the true reflection of the success of the peace process.
"Paralysing government punishes the public not the paramilitaries," the leader of the nationalist SDLP said.
"I believe we must first affirm the absolute primacy of the institutions. "That means making clear that no party can respond to its own internal pressures or paramilitary wrongdoing by threatening to turn the lights out on our new democratic institutions of government."
However, Mr Durkan also called on both the British and Irish governments to be more honest about paramilitary violence.
"When they know that paramilitaries are engaged in wrongdoing - even falling short of breaking their ceasefires - they should call it as they see it," he said.
"Simply turning a blind eye only encourages the paramilitaries to believe that they can get away with what they like."
