The Sinn Fein chief negotiator has said the one-day suspension of the North's power-sharing institutions could have jeopardised the IRA initiative on putting its weapons beyond use.
Speaking on the BBC yesterday, Mr Martin McGuinness said the suspension, along with what he described as "the Unionist rejection" of statements by the IRA and Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), might have caused "a serious situation".
"I think that it may have jeopardised the very important development of earlier this week. Now we see a situation where there are questions being raised as to whether or not that initiative may indeed be jeopardised," he said.
"Gen de Chastelain reported very great progress. Our duty now is to ensure that whatever agreements were made between, for instance, the IRA representative and Gen de Chastelain can be pursued with vigour," he said.
Asked whether he would advise the IRA to keep talking with Gen de Chastelain, he said: "I would of course advise everybody to hang on in there and continue to try and fully implement the Good Friday agreement."
Mr Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, later rejected the Northern Secretary's assertion that a deal to resolve decommissioning, policing and demilitarisation was tantalisingly close.
"If the British are saying that a deal is within reach, does that mean they are going to pull troops out of south Armagh, Tyrone, west Belfast and north Belfast?" he asked.
"I hear also the patronising tone that the institutions have been stood down for only one day and now it's OK again. Well, it's not OK again," he said.
"It isn't OK that the British government are trying to hold on to plastic bullets and trying to force a democratically accountable police service," he said.
The SDLP's Mr Mark Durkan, meanwhile, rejected the idea that there was any real discontent at what he termed "the commercial break" suspension and said he hoped that progress could be made in the new six-week period before elections or suspension of the institutions.
"I would hope that with a period of weeks available that should be enough time for the governments to work forward on some of the aspects of the package that are particular to them," Mr Durkan said.