DUP leader Ian Paisley has repeated that the IRA must be disbanded and that Sinn Féin had no entitlement to be at yesterday's multi-party talks at Hillsborough.
Dr Paisley, who led a DUP delegation in talks with Northern Secretary Peter Hain and Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, said the main focus of his talks with Mr Ahern was urging the Government to pressurise the IRA into ceasing all activity.
"I want to see them disbanded. You can't sit at the table as IRA/Sinn Féin. They must be disbanded. That is what the ministers of the South of Ireland ; even one of their ex-PMs said that they should be an old boys' association," he said.
"I don't think Sinn Féin should be at talks to set up a new government of Northern Ireland when they are still at their criminal activities," added Dr Paisley, who stressed that while he spoke to Mr Ahern he only talked about North-South matters.
He insisted the DUP would not be rushed into a power-sharing agreement by the British and Irish governments.
"And if there is going to be an agreement it must be firm, rock solid and on democratic principles. And non-democrats and terrorists should not be in any government of Northern Ireland," said Dr Paisley.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan, after his party's talks with Mr Ahern and Mr Hain, called on the British government to reconvene the Assembly to test whether it was possible to elect a power-sharing Executive. "The governments need to make it clear that we are on a countdown to the restoration of the institutions."
Reconvening the Assembly in the current political climate is unlikely to lead to the formation of the Executive. Mr Durkan, however, said such a move would make it clear to the DUP that it could not exert a "veto" over political progress. He also warned that the British government in new legislation planned for April must not do anything that would undermine the consensus nature of the Belfast Agreement.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said he pressed the two governments for a timetable for restoration. "The governments say these talks are not for the optics. Well, they need to prove that," he said. "Action is what is needed to get the political institutions back in place."
Referring to the weekend DUP conference and remarks by Ian Paisley about Sinn Féin involvement in any future deal, Mr Adams asked: "Are the governments in charge or is Ian Paisley in charge? Is Ian Paisley going to be a part of this new dispensation or is he not? Only decisive acts by the governments will find the answer to that question."
He accused the DUP leader of "grandstanding" and of doing "the things he has done for 40 years". Sinn Féin would scrutinise any legislative proposals, Mr Adams said, mindful of the fact that the party "had been stung" by previous British bills dealing with policing and the so-called "on-the-runs".
"There again, whatever comes out of this, it has to be the Good Friday agreement. Nothing less. Nothing more."
Sinn Féin would always be part of "any constructive effort to move the process forward", he said, and would always turn up for talks at Hillsborough or anywhere else. "But it has to be tenable. The status quo at the moment is absolutely not tenable. There is a degree of farce about an institution, the Assembly, which has never met." He said the governments should act and move beyond rhetoric.
UUP leader Sir Reg Empey called for the "maximum obtainable level of devolution as quickly as possible" but with "more transparency".