Sinn Féin Ardfheis delegates were last night urged not "to wobble" by SF's chief negotiator Martin McGuinness.
A number of the motions before the three-day ardfheis which opened at the RDS in Dublin last night, are implicitly critical of the leadership's stand on a number of key issues, including possible coalition options and demanding a hard-line opposition to supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Speaking to delegates last night, Mr McGuinness said: "The media are looking to see us wobble. They are probably hoping for division. I think they are going to be very disappointed at this ardfheis."
Urging the Democratic Unionist Party to enter government with SF, Mr McGuinness said the largest unionist party "has to come to terms with the new realities. They have a huge decision to make. I hope that Ian Paisley makes the right decision, but if he makes the wrong decision there is a huge responsibility on Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair to make it clear that the DUP are not going to be allowed to prevent progress.
"If that means stopping the Assembly salaries, so be it. If that means abolishing the Assembly, so be it."
The party's attitude to coalition in the South after the next general elections will be debated this afternoon, with some delegates demanding that the party rule it out completely now, while others want guarantees that SF will not support a minority administration led by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern from the Opposition back benches.
Cavan/Monaghan TD Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said Sinn Féin should not spend all of its time this year looking back to the 90th anniversary of the Rising. Sharply criticising Mr Ahern, Mr Ó Caoláin said he had dropped plans to give Northern MPs the rights of audience in the Dáil in the face of the "deeply held partitionism" of Fine Gael and Labour.
"That the Taoiseach has caved in to such partitionism is especially ironic given his decision to commemorate 1916," said the Cavan/Monaghan TD.
Rejecting calls to change the party's support for a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, delegates declined to accept a motion calling for legislation to be put in place "to enable this right to be exercised".
Delegates also rejected a motion that would have given individual SF members the right to "articulate and campaign on the issue of abortion according to their conscience".
Dublin delegate Justin Moran said he "personally abhorred abortion", but he did not believe that he had the right "to force my moral beliefs on anyone else".
During a debate on the peace process, delegates endorsed a motion stating that republicanism would not be in a strong position today without the "armed campaign waged by the IRA". The motion, which was passed without discussion, also stated there would be no peace process without the IRA.