The Sinn Fein president has said any suspension of the North's power-sharing institutions would be illegal. After meeting the Northern Secretary at Hillsborough yesterday, Mr Gerry Adams said he had "made it very clear that the British government should not suspend the institutions - should not concede to the UUP the goal which Mr Trimble set last autumn for his party".
According to Mr Adams, Mr Trimble had previously told him he would threaten to withdraw UUP ministers from the Executive in order to secure a suspension. Mr Adams's claim was later denied by the UUP.
"The unlawful behaviour of the First Minister would be compounded by the unlawful behaviour of the British Secretary of State if he comes to this decision, and it doesn't matter if he does it for one day or for a year, it is not contained in the Good Friday agreement," the party leader said.
If the British government was planning a suspension, "it needs to calculate the effect this would have on nationalists and republicans, on their confidence in the integrity of the agreement.
"The reality is this process is at a crossroads and this arises directly from the UUP's efforts to renegotiate the agreement, it has been brought about this week by the UUP's rejection of the determination of the IICD [the decommissioning body]."
Mr Adams welcomed yesterday's IRA statement that it had agreed on a scheme for putting weapons beyond use. It was "proof positive of that organisation's commitment to enhancing this process".
"Given the provocative and negative response to the IICD report and the IRA's proposal, I consider it to be a very measured statement in the circumstances."
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said that with the scheme to start decommissioning IRA weapons now in place, all parties and both governments must now fully implement the agreement. "Given the reality of the alternative, which is the destruction of the institutions, who in their right mind would make that choice?"
The North's Finance Minister, Mr Mark Durkan of the SDLP, also welcomed the IRA statement. "All of us would want there to be substantive progress on the issue of decommissioning, just as we want substantive progress on other things," he said. "I would hope that those who would say they are disappointed would remember that on Monday what they were saying was that Gen de Chastelain's statement struck them as being a put-up job."
An SDLP delegation led by Mr Hume also had talks with Dr Reid but refused to confirm if suspension of the institutions or fresh elections would be the best way out of the crisis.
Mr Hume said: "We have suggested to them that the best way forward given the current situation is for both governments to work with all parties in working to fully implement the package that they have set out and to set up the implementation group which would mean in effect that both governments and all parties would be monitoring the implementation because we see that as the best way forward in the current situation."