Sinn Féin reaction: The governments' document released yesterday is a good deal which reflects accurately the fundamentals of the Belfast Agreement, Sinn Féin said.
At his party's office on Falls Road, Belfast, following the two premiers' press conference, Mr Gerry Adams said the paper dealt satisfactorily with the agreement's power-sharing, all-Ireland and equality provisions.
But he emphasised that his party had made clear back in September that the proposal for a decommissioning photograph was not achievable. The party president confirmed that substantial progress had been made in other important areas.
Issues relating to the IRA were a matter for the IRA, he said, adding that "in the context of a comprehensive agreement, the IRA leadership will resolve these issues". That was a "huge contribution," he said "which can liberate this process".
He said that as far as Sinn Féin was concerned, all issues of substance were resolved. The matter of photographs was first raised in the week before the Leeds Castle talks in Kent last September.
"We were told by the two governments that this was a DUP demand," he said. "We told them, in our view that this was not achievable. We were surprised on November 17th when we received their joint statement when this demand was contained in a paragraph of a draft of an IICD [ Independent International Commission on Decommissioning] report. . . We asked the two governments to take it out."
But Mr Adams said the governments' response was to claim there was no other way of getting the DUP to agree. He and Mr Martin McGuinness approached the IRA leadership and relayed its opinion to the Taoiseach and the Prime Minister.
A senior republican later told The Irish Times an IRA statement could be made available before the weekend once consultation among its membership was complete.
Mr Adams also claimed that by publishing details of points of dissention between republicans and the DUP, the governments were masking the substantial progress made.
He did not wish to respond to comments made by the Tánaiste in the Dáil yesterday about "humiliation working both ways".
He preferred to point to what the Rev Ian Paisley had agreed to: "He said 'yes' to power-sharing, has said 'yes' to the various strands, has said 'yes to the all-Ireland structure . . . except for one."
Mr Adams claimed Dr Paisley wanted the IRA to be humiliated. "This [ process] should not be let fall on the basis of this demand," he said.