The SDLP leader had private talks with the Ulster Unionist Party and Sinn Fein this week about his suggestion that all Northern parties declare their commitment to exclusively peaceful means.
Mr John Hume revealed this at the Labour Party conference last night, when he said that the real issue in the North was reassuring people that the violence was over.
Stressing that the difficulties with implementing the Belfast Agreement could be overcome, he said the arms issue had received much attention. "Certainly, the issue of arms will have to be resolved to everybody's satisfaction. But a gun is a piece of inanimate metal that can be replaced by another piece of metal. It is only an instrument of war when it is turned into such by people.
"The real issue is reassuring everybody that violence has ended and that nobody in the new administration in the North would belong to an organisation which was engaged in violence.
"That is why I recently proposed the idea of a declaration by all parties of their commitment to exclusively democratic and peaceful means, and that if that commitment were abandoned, they would be automatically expelling themselves from the administration. I continue to believe that this approach has potential and I have been having private discussions on it this week with both the UUP and Sinn Fein."
Mr Hume, who was praised by the Labour leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, and other speakers for his work over 30 years, said there had been a lot of gloomy talk in recent weeks about the state of the agreement. "Let me make my position loud and clear. The agreement will prevail. It will not and cannot be allowed to fail," he said.
