Sinn Fein chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness today confirmed progress on efforts to put the Northern Ireland peace process back on track.
But he insisted at his party's ardfheis in Dublin that a final deal had still to emerge from on-going talks with the two governments and other political leaders.
Mr McGuinness, speaking at one of the final sessions of the three-day meeting also issued a strong rallying call to his party ahead of May's elections for a new Northern Ireland Assembly.
He declared: "Increased political strength will allow Sinn Fein to deliver further change in the interests of all of the people of this island.
"In the Assembly elections, as in previous elections across this island, we collectively as a party have the opportunity to increase our political and negotiating strength. That is the challenge we must address.
"Every Sinn Fein voter has a role to play. The political landscape of the North has changed forever. The degree of change that we can achieve is linked directly to our political strength."
Mr McGuinness repeated Sinn Fein's "obligations" to reach out to Ulster's unionists adding: "We have a responsibility to use our mandate wisely in the interests of a lasting peace."
He spelled out in detail the sessions of negotiating involving both Sinn Fein and the other political parties of Northern Ireland as well as both the Irish and British governments over recent months and stressed: "Throughout we have sought to achieve a plan for the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement and to counter any attempt to filter this through a unionist prism."
Mr McGuinness again made clear his Sinn Fein's total rejection of any plans to impose sanctions on parties seen to be straying from the terms of the Agreement.
He also underscored the intent to ensure that there would be no more "serial suspensions" of the Northern Ireland and cross-Irish border institutions.
On the issue of policing in Northern Ireland - one of the central obstacles to progress in the continuing negotiations, Mr McGuinness maintained there had been steady progress towards ensuring "that the police service is democratically accountable and representative".
Senior party member Mr Gerry Kelly said there would be no immediate move to decide on the issue of the party's controversial enrolment on the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
He reported to the conference that the stage had not yet been reached where a special meeting of delegates on the policing question could be convened.
Mr Kelly said: "We are not in a position to call such a meeting because we have not yet achieved the threshold for a new beginning to policing. It is work in progress."
Other issues lined up for discussion included equality and human rights. But there was also an acknowledgement among the 2,000 delegates that political affairs might not be totally dominant throughout the entire day.
Party officials made a point of informing the ardfheis that wide screen TV coverage of this afternoon's crucial Six Nations Rugby International at nearby Lansdowne Road between Ireland and England was available in the conference complex.