Northern Ireland's political parties must now focus on securing a devolved government which excludes Sinn Féin, the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists insisted tonight.
With talks at Stormont still reeling from allegations that the IRA attempted a kidnapping in Belfast city centre last Friday, Mr Paisley said he was "left utterly sick" at the failure of British and Irish governments to take sanctions against Sinn Féin in the negotiations.
His deputy Mr Peter Robinson also insisted parties needed to look at how they could freeze Sinn Féin out of government if devolution returned.
The East Belfast MP said: "Talks must take a new direction.
"We will over the next number of weeks be concentrating on two issues.
"We will be concentrating on dealing with paramilitary activity and decommissioning - that is not just talking about it or looking at words used in Paragraph 13 (of the British and Irish Governments' joint declaration).
"Secondly we want to direct parties' attention, because of the behaviour of Sinn Féin /IRA, as to what processes we can have for government that do not require Sinn Féin /IRA participation."