Nationalist and unionist leaders yesterday condemned a bombing incident which took place outside a Catholic family's home in Armagh early yesterday.
A pipe-bomb exploded outside the family of five's home around 3 a.m. No one was injured in the incident, and the RUC has described the damage as minimal.
Police are treating the attack as sectarian.
The Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, said the current political deadlock created the conditions that enabled the attack to take place.
He condemned the "dysfunctional elements of society" behind the attack and said they had "no love for democracy or the Good Friday agreement".
"It is imperative that the political parties move speedily resolve the current hold-up," he added.
Ulster Unionist Assembly member, Mr Danny Kennedy, called the attack "cowardly" and a "deliberate attempt at murder".
The city's UUP mayor, Mr Robert Turner, condemned the act for its "blatant" sectarianism.
On Thursday night two boys aged 12 and 13 found an unexploded pipe-bomb in a playing field in Larne, Co Antrim.
They were playing at Cragyhill when they found the device hidden in a hedgerow.
British army forensic experts safely dismantled the pipe-bomb and conducted a follow-up search yesterday.