Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, has said there is not enough on the negotiating table at present to secure a political deal in the North.
Speaking yesterday, Mr Adams said a lot more work needed to be done before the Provisional IRA could be persuaded to disarm. While progress had been made with the British government on policing, criminal justice, and human rights, there was still unfinished business, he said.
"The question of going to the IRA doesn't even arise at this moment if we can't get David Trimble to stay in one place long enough to find out exactly where he is on all these issues.
"At the moment, if there isn't enough to get a doable deal between all the parties, then we will have to judge all those other matters in that context," he said. The UUP's insistence on sanctions against Sinn Féin if the Provisional IRA breaches its ceasefire is the major stumbling block to agreement.
Mr Adams insisted sanctions were completely unacceptable. "Sinn Féin is not against parties or party members being held to account if they are in breach of commitments or pledges of office or house rules.
"We cannot accept and will not accept the government stepping outside the Good Friday agreement to bring in sanctions which are aimed at us for something another organisation may or may not be responsible for," he said.
Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said he was "disappointed" the Irish Government had supported unionist demands for sanctions.
Progress had been made during the Hillsborough talks earlier this week but on a "two steps forward, one step back" basis.
"There was progress on policing. We haven't closed on it yet, but we made progress.
"We made particular progress on criminal justice, on the equality agenda and the Bill of Rights, the human rights issue, and Irish language rights.
"Work on that will continue over the next few weeks. We now have to work on closing the gaps on the remaining issues," Mr McLaughlin said.
The Women's Coalition called on the North's parties to continue dialogue. Further talks should be held as soon as possible "to keep the channels open and send a firm message that we will work together to get the political process back on track".