The British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair was urged to refocus his attention on the Northern Ireland peace process tonight to prevent it being plunged into further crisis.
The Sinn Fein President, Mr Gerry Adams, speaking after meeting the Prime Minister, bitterly attacked the British and Irish Governments' decision to suspend political talks in the wake of this week's report from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC).
The talks, which were due to take place at Lancaster House in London next week, were aimed at finding a way to break the political stalemate.
Mr Adams said a period of intense discussion between the political parties was now vital to restore the process. "We told him [Mr Blair] that the cancellation of the talks next week is a mistake and we argued for, and in our view there is going to be, a period of intense contact between us on all of these matters."
Mr Adams voiced his party's anger over the British government's plans to impose financial sanctions because of the terror activities of the IRA.
The IMC report published earlier this week stated that the IRA remained active and added that key Sinn Fein members were at the heart of its leadership.
The Sinn Fein president reiterated his party's opposition to the report. "We told Mr Blair that we totally and absolutely reject and that we resent the effort by the two governments to penalise and discriminate against our party."
Mr Blair issued a tough public message to Sinn Fein at his monthly Downing Street press conference yesterday when he said any party which wanted to be part of the government of Northern Ireland "has to be clean of any association with paramilitary activity of whatever sort".
PA