Sinn Fein: 'IRA offer jeopardised'

Martin McGuinness: Potential for a "serious situation"

The IRA's offer to put its weapons beyond use may have been jeopardised by the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Sinn Fein has warned.

The party's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, said the Ulster Unionists' rejection of the offer may also have caused a "serious situation".

Speaking at a republican rally in west Belfast on Sunday, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said that over the next six weeks the British Government and the unionists were going to put pressure on republicans to move under their terms.

Over the next six weeks I fully intend to tackle the questions which some people say are the stumbling blocks

Dr John Reid

But Northern Ireland Secretary, John Reid, said the parties in the province are tantalisingly close to a peace deal.

Devolved government was restored in Stormont at midnight, 24 hours after it was suspended by Dr Reid to "buy time" to save the peace process.

Due to the mechanics of the Good Friday Agreement, the temporary suspension has given politicians a further six weeks to try to negotiate a way out of the peace process deadlock.

But the measure sparked fury among republicans, and there are fears the IRA might respond by breaking off contact with General John de Chastelain's decommissioning body.

Speaking on the BBC's Breakfast With Frost on Sunday, Mr McGuinness said the work achieved had been undermined by the refusal of the Ulster Unionists to accept the statement by the decommissioning body which said the IRA had a "satisfactory" plan to put weapons "completely and verifiably beyond use".

'Work undermined'

"Unfortunately we saw a week that began with the momentous announcement by the chair of the independent body on decommissioning and end with the suspension of the people's institutions," he said.

"The unionist rejection of General de Chastelain's declaration and the suspension of the institutions may have caused a serious situation.

"It may, in fact, have jeopardised the very important development of earlier in the week."

However, speaking on the same programme, Northern Ireland Secretary of State Dr John Reid said he "fervently believed" the issues could be resolved.

	:	Fast Facts Primer
Click above to launch a primer on what the governments have proposed.

He said he would be "deeply disappointed if the IRA walked away from agreements recently made".

But he insisted there had to be movement on the issue of decommissioning illegal weapons.

"It is possible for us to tackle the longest running problem in British and Irish history," he said.

"I wish we hadn't found ourselves in the situation we did, but given the options that were in front of me - between an election with a long period of disruption or a prolonged suspension - I took the third way.

John Reid: "Issues can be resolved"

"This was basically to give more time, to give peace a chance and to buy more time.

"Over the next six weeks I fully intend to tackle the questions which some people say are the stumbling blocks.

"These are the policing reforms, the non-publication of the implementation plan - which has now been shown to the parties - so we have a good idea on the basis of the draft what should be in that, the criminal justice review and so on."

After talks with Dr Reid at Hillsborough Castle, near Belfast, on Saturday, the Irish Foreign Minister, Brian Cowen, said he hoped the parties would now step up their commitment to the process.

'Collective responsibility

Mr Cowen said those involved needed to rededicate themselves to the partnership approach.

"I get the impression that requirement is absent ... it needs to be restored.

"The concerns that people are expressing cannot take precedence over the democratic requirements of the situation. People north and south have said, `We want the Good Friday Agreement fully implemented'.

"Over the next six weeks we need to see the pro-agreement party representatives working together, re-establishing a sense of collective responsibility to meet the requirements of the situation."