Sinn Féin said today it was unlikely to meet the Monday deadline for an answer to the Irish and British Government's "take it or leave it" package aimed at putting the troubled political regime in Belfast back on course.
Sinn Féin emerged from new talks with Northern Ireland secretary Dr John Reid saying much work was still needed in the latest bid to save the peace process.
The party also brushed aside Monday's deadline for a response to the proposals.
One of the delegation, Mr Alex Maskey, said the expectation of a response by Monday was "silly nonsense".
He added: "As far as we are concerned there is no deadline in this matter other than the imperative of getting the Good Friday Agreement implemented."
Today's discussions at Hillsborough Castle, County Down, provided the party with its first sight of sensitive plans to put in place a reformed police service.
Mr Maskey said: "Obviously it is a lengthy document and it will take some time to study and analyse fully so we're not going to knee-jerk on it.
"We have looked at it cursorily and we feel that a number of elements that are of concern to ourselves and others have not yet been met but we will continue to press ahead."
Another member of the delegation, Mr Conor Murphy, shrugged off suggestions that the party was stalling for more concessions.
He said: "If you think that a proper policing service and people's entitlement to live free from a huge military occupation is a concession, then I don't know where you're coming from."
"These are democratic rights that people have in any society. They're not concessions."
The governments and pro-agreement parties have a week to resolve the latest crisis sparked by the resignation of Ulster Unionist leader Mr Trimble as First Minister of Northern Ireland over the decommissioning issue. If a First Minister is not in place by then assembly elections will automatically be triggered - though it is thought more likely that the institutions will be suspended before that happens.
Expectations have been high that an IRA statement is in the offing since the governments published their blueprint on Wednesday - and a definitive Sinn Féin statement would be expected to follow that.
Ulster Unionists have already indicated that they cannot respond to the proposals before Tuesday at the earliest.
Party officers are meeting to discuss it on Monday night and the views of assembly members are to be canvassed on Tuesday.
However, outspoken UUP MP Mr David Burnside said he expected it to be rejected.
The South Antrim MP who has already withdrawn his support for the agreement, said: "The package is being used by the republican movement to extract more concessions on policing." Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster he added: "I will not take tokenism or gestures and I do not believe that the Ulster Unionist Party will over the next week."
Meanwhile the SDLP’s Mr Mark Durkan said the party had not yet made up its mind.
He acknowledged that the gap between the Patten proposals on policing, and the changes proposed by the government had been reduced.
But he added: "The gap has been narrowed, we didn't say the gap has been totally closed.
"We will try to approach that issue and all other issues in relation to the package as we positively can."
PA