The Sinn Féin president has claimed the SDLP’s deputy leader is trying to "score points" against his party while refusing to engage with them during talks.
As parties prepared for a fourth day of talks in Weston Park on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border, nationalists and republicans clashed over their approach to talks.
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Mr Gerry Adams criticised Mr Seamus Mallon for claiming republicans had given the SDLP and other parties no sense of their position on decommissioning.
The West Belfast MP said: "He can't have it both ways. Mr Mallon has failed to attend any of the bilaterals between Sinn Féin and the SDLP at Weston Park Hall and, indeed, before that.
"He doesn't seem to realise that the elections are over. He needs to get real and stop being grumpy, and he needs to fulfill his responsibility even in the acting capacity of Deputy First Minister.
"Seeking to score points off us in public while refusing to engage with us in private is not the way to make this process," Mr Adams said.
Mr Adams' criticism of his nationalist rival was seen as further evidence of the sour atmosphere among the Northern Ireland parties as they headed back to the talks with the Taoiseach and the British Prim Minister.
Mr Mallon had reported on Wednesday before leaving that progress was being made on the policing and demilitarisation issues but that republicans were giving nothing away on disarmament.
Sources in Belfast and Dublin were today expecting the talks to begin late this afternoon, with the possibility of them extending into the night and perhaps tomorrow.
PA