Northern Ireland parties who aspire to government must be "clean" of any paramilitary connections, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has insisted ahead of what could be a testy meeting with the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, today.
While republicans continue to vent their fury at the Irish and British governments, the SDLP and the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) over the commission's recommended sanctions against Sinn Féin, Mr Blair defended the commission and said paramilitarism was the sole block to a return to devolution.
Mr Adams, who is due to meet the Taoiseach Mr Ahern in Dublin on Monday and flies to London for his engagement with Mr Blair today, yesterday described the four-member IMC as "a collection of spies, spooks, retired civil servants and failed politicians".
Mr Blair, however, at his monthly Downing Street press conference yesterday said the IMC, which recommended financial penalties against Sinn Féin and the Progressive Unionist Party because of IRA and loyalist activity, was an independent body and that it would have significant future involvement in the political process.
"It is going to play a central role because people in Northern Ireland, and indeed in the Republic of Ireland, can see the full extent of paramilitary activity and can recognise therefore the justice of the demand being made by the British and Irish governments, \ all the other political parties in Northern Ireland, that anybody who wants to be a part of the government of Northern Ireland has to be clean from any association with paramilitary activity of whatever sort."
The Prime Minister, who meets Mr Adams, Mr Martin McGuinness and Sinn Féin's Dublin European election candidate, Ms Mary Lou McDonald, today, said that paramilitarism was the remaining obstacle to the reinstatement of the institutions of the Belfast Agreement.
"The only way we are going to deal with this is to make sure that people face up to the basic issue, which is that we have everything agreed in Northern Ireland and we just need one thing to come into place - that is the acceptance by everybody that we can no longer tolerate any level of paramilitary activity," said Mr Blair.
Mr Adams said he "totally and absolutely" rejected and greatly resented the "effort by the two governments" to penalise and discriminate against Sinn Féin. "There are some who think that there is a case of going with the flow on these matters. It is not. It is a matter of political principle. And for that reason I have been publicly very, very critical of the Irish Government," he said.
He added that it was his clear understanding that the cancellation of next week's London talks involving Mr Ahern, Mr Blair and the Northern parties was at the request of the Irish Government.
Mr Adams said that the SDLP's defence of the IMC report was "disgraceful, as are that party leadership's assurances to Mr Blair that Tuesday's publication of the report 'had the potential to be a good day for the peace process'".
The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, said that "instead of lashing out at the SDLP, Mr Adams should use his influence over the IRA to end paramilitary activity. The PUP and loyalists must do likewise.
"The IMC report confirmed the truth - the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries are beating people up and ripping people off. That is what is disgraceful.
"Just as some people cannot handle the truth about collusion revealed by Cory, it is clear that some people cannot handle the truth about paramilitarism," he said.
