Party president Gerry Adams tried to switch the focus away from the thorny issue of the decommissioning of terrorist arms after Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble called for an early handover of weapons.

Gerry Adams: other issues require more attention

At a Belfast news conference, Mr Adams emphasised that the party's position was "very clearly known".

He asked: "Are the public as informed about the need to disband the RUC? Are they as informed that people voted for David Trimble to talk to our Party? Are they as informed on the equality issue? Are they as informed on the need for a gesture of goodwill from the marching Orders?"

Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey tells Radio 4's Today programme his party's position on decommissioning (3'50")

Sinn Fein vice-president Pat Doherty said those who were seeking to make capital from the decommissioning issue were "going down a cul-de-sac".

He said: "It is not the issue. The issue is the document we voted for on Friday. Let's not be pursuing dead-end issues."

They were speaking after the Northern Ireland Minister, Paul Murphy, re-stated that decommissioning was an "indispensable" part of the peace plan.

The minister said legislation to create the new assembly and reassert the requirement to decommission would be pushed through Parliament "in the next couple of months so people can be assured the so-called war is finished. It is gone".

Northern Ireland Minister Paul Murphy: decommissioning is "indispensible"

But Sinn Fein has made it clear it is unrealistic to expect terrorists to hand over arms before July at the earliest, and the party believes the summer series of loyalist marches is the issue that needs addressing first.

Mr Adams said there was only a problem with around a dozen of the hundreds of marches and he hoped the Orange Orders had a "good day out" on July 12.

But he also hoped there would be a "small gesture" in places like the nationalist Garvaghy Road during the Drumcree demonstration, where violence has flared for the last three years.

The march is in Mr Trimble's constituency and Mr Adams has asked him to ask for the route to be altered.

John McCrea of the Orange Order explains whether march routes will be moved (3'31")

But Orange Order Grand Secretary John McCrea insisted it would be up to the organisers of each march to decide.

He told BBC News 24 he hoped Mr Adams would not use the loyalist parades "as a political football prior to the assembly elections next month".

And for his part, the head of the arms decommissioning body, General John de Chastelain suggested decommissioning was far from a dead end issue.

He said it was one of the next steps in the peace process, and suggested "regulations should be put in place before the end of June and the process should be finished in two years".

Head of arms decommissioning body, Jean de Castelain: process should start in June (3'43")

He also expressed his fear that otherwise, weapons could fall into the wrong hands, such as those of organised criminals.

Sinn Fein also announced some candidates for the new assembly, although their campaign for the elections was not formally launched.