The INLA has handed over a document to loyalist paramilitaries which, it says, is aimed at an agreement that the paramilitary ceasefires will be maintained even if the political vacuum continues.
The INLA delivered the paper to the UDA and the UVF last month through an intermediary. The document has been given to the Provisional IRA for consideration and will he forwarded to the "Real IRA" and the Continuity IRA this week, sources said.
A spokesman for the INLA's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, said there were fears of a return to violence given the political stalemate.
"The current political situation is the fault of a clique at Stormont," he said. "Unfortunately, if there is a return to conflict, it will be workingclass people in both parts of the community who will fight and die.
"We want to avoid that situation. For too long the working class have been cannon fodder in the North. They have been used as pawns by politicians who care nothing about them. We are saying that it is time the working-class in both republican and loyalist areas took control of their own future.
"These proposals don't involve any demand for decommissioning. But just because there is no chance of decommissioning doesn't make a return to violence inevitable."
The IRSP spokesman said the non-aggression pact contained clear, unambiguous principles.