The party is putting forward proposals for the review of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Before the meeting, SDLP negotiator Eddie McGrady said that although the focus is on the stalemate between the Ulster Unionists Party and Sinn Fein, every party will have an important role to play in the review.

He said: "The two governments and all the parties including ourselves have a very important contribution to make towards the removal of the impasse.

"[We need] to facilitate, guarantee, give confidence to, build trust in, whatever words you want to use: to enable the Ulster Unionist Party to proceed with devolution, even at some risk to themselves and to ensure that paramilitary decommissioning takes place."

'Deadline out of question'

But Sinn Fein Vice President Pat Doherty cast further shadows over the prospects for a resolution when he said on Sunday that the May 2000 deadline for IRA decommissioning is "out of the question".

In a week of pessimistic statements from the republican party he also blamed unionists for "walking through" political deadlines.

Speaking on BBC One's Breakfast with Frost programme, Mr Doherty said the "political crisis" was caused by the UUP's refusal to sit on a power-sharing executive.

Pat Doherty, Vice-President of Sinn Fein, talks to the BBC

He said disarmament "has to be in the political context and there is no political context at the moment. We are nowhere near that context".

The UUP has said it will not sit in a devolved government with Sinn Fein until the IRA begins to decommission arms.

Pat Doherty: "We must bring forward all sides' weapons for decommissioning"

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, the executive must be made up of both unionist and nationalist parties.

Mr Doherty repeated Sinn Fein's position that an IRA arms handover prior to the formation of a devolved government is not part of the Good Friday Agreement.

He said: "We believe if we are to have proper politics in Ireland, we must bring all of the weapons - including those of the loyalists, British army and the RUC - forward for decommissioning."

He criticised the UUP, and said: "Many of our members believe the unionists do not want to share power with nationalists and republicans."

Commitments must be matched

David Trimble [left]: Insists on IRA decommissioning before power-share

However, writing in Monday's Irish News senior UUP negotiator Dermot Nesbitt said it was offensive and "simply not true" for Sinn Fein to claim unionists would not embrace political change and would never enter into a power-sharing executive.

He said: "For confidence to develop and the process to continue, unionism's commitment needs to be matched by a commitment from the republican movement regarding an end to violence."