The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, says the "building blocks" for the potential resolution of the current impasse over arms decommissioning and the formation of a power-sharing executive are contained in the Hillsborough Declaration.
Mr Trimble said his party would require clarification on some issues but that the document offered "realistically the only way forward" and identified the elements which needed to be addressed.
"The concepts contained within it, the building blocks that are there, are things that people have to address. I said at the time that they had the potential to resolve the current difficulties," he said. He called on Sinn Fein to give "a clearer explanation" as to why it repudiates the declaration and said that by rejecting it the party was refusing to implement the Belfast Agreement. The leaders of the republican movement needed to stand up to the "paramilitarists in their ranks" who were blocking progress. However, Sinn Fein stated that the establishment of a power-sharing executive was the way out of the current logjam. "The two governments must uphold the agreement, through triggering d'Hondt and establishing the institutions. That is the way out of the crisis," said the party's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin.
He said it would be a huge mistake for the governments to underestimate other unresolved issues that the party viewed as important. The issue of policing, demilitarisation, the setting up of an inquiry into the murder of Pat Finucane and the resolution of the Drumcree stand-off are all highlighted by the party.
SDLP Assembly member Mr Mark Durkan said yesterday that the Hillsborough Declaration offered a "workable basis" for political progress. The conditions to allow all the parties to go forward together must be created. He urged the two governments to put "shape" and "pace" on the current round of negotiations. "Having discussions in a fairly unstructured and random way isn't going to be the basis for creating the sort of understanding and sense of collective urgency that is needed to make progress."
Mr Durkan added that his party believed in an inclusive executive and would oppose the setting up of a cabinet without Sinn Fein. "Equally, the idea of running D'Hondt now in circumstances where there would probably be no unionists nominated wouldn't give us an inclusive executive either.
"We're quite clear. We want as inclusive an executive formed as envisaged in the agreement, as promoted by us in the negotiations. That's what people voted for us to deliver in the referendum."
But Ulster Unionist MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said the onus now fell on the UUP and the SDLP to exclude Sinn Fein from government if there was no progress on decommissioning. He said the Hillsborough Declaration was "dead in the water" despite comments from his party leader earlier that the document was the "only way forward".
"I think following Sinn Fein/IRA's rejection of the Hillsborough Declaration it is now dead in the water. So the onus is on the main democratic parties to now be prepared to exclude Sinn Fein from the executive if Sinn Fein/IRA won't decommission," he said. The Ulster Democratic Party, a signatory to the agreement, also stressed that the political process could not wait indefinitely for Sinn Fein. Said party leader Mr Gary McMichael: "If they are not prepared to contribute to the process in a meaningful way it should proceed with a formula supported by the other parties.
"It is clear those who are not pulling their weight in this process are Sinn Fein who, despite the fact that they stand to gain ministerial positions from a resolution of the problem, are putting no positive proposals on the table for discussion."