Marching season trouble should not be linked to the anticipated IRA response to Gerry Adams's call for the Provisionals to abandon violence, the Sinn Féin leader said today.
Shortly after meeting the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern in Dublin this afternoon, Mr Adams said he would not speculate on whether Tuesday night's 12th of July rioting in Belfast would have any effect on the statement expected in the coming weeks.
"Let's get away from speculating about what time it will take . . . the focus has to be on the type of positive outcome that I have appealed for."
His meeting with Mr Ahern focused on the situation post-Ardoyne and the arrest of Belfast republican Sean Kelly. Mr Adams said the conversation also included the "Rossport 5", the men jailed as part of their protest against a proposed Shell pipeline.
He said his party was focusing on calming tensions ahead of forthcoming contentious marches in various parts of Northern Ireland: "I don't want to speculate on anything other than the need for all of us to try and ensure that the continuation of the marching season is as peaceful as possible."
He maintained his party's efforts had been largely successful in encouraging the nationalist community to confine their protests against loyalist marches to peaceful demonstration.
But trouble flared in north Belfast on Tuesday evening when an Orange Order march was routed through a flashpoint area of Ardoyne. The PSNI said 80 officers were injured and Orangemen were also hurt when they were attacked by protesters on the return leg of the march.
Police said blast bombs, petrol bombs and various missiles were thrown at them in as 500 to 600 rioters engaged in four hours of violence.
Mr Adams today accused the PSNI of "clever media management" after the disturbances and said: "There's been a whole focus on how the thing broke down, but I think - relatively speaking - we got off quite lightly . . . no-one was killed even though there was obviously potential for a terrible disaster."
He said his call for the IRA to adopt democratic means of pursuing its goals during the UK general election in May was because of his concern about what could happen during the marching season.
The IRA must be proactive, he said, but the Irish and British governments and the DUP also have "obligations" in helping avert violence around future loyalist marches.