Progressive Unionist Party leader Mr Hugh Smyth has expressed disappointment at the SDLP's "hardline attitude" over the crisis in the peace process. He accused the party of toughening its position on several issues because it feared the increasing electoral threat from Sinn Fein.
Mr Smyth was speaking at the PUP annual conference in east Belfast on Saturday. Several hundred delegates attended. The PUP is the UVF's political wing. Mr Smyth, a councillor on the Shankill Road, said nationalists needed to change their attitude if the peace process was to survive.
"Nationalists have become intransigent on the issue of police reform. They need to accept compromise over the Patten report but are refusing to do so. As a supporter of the agreement and the Assembly, I find it increasingly difficult to come to terms with the attitude of Sinn Fein and the SDLP.
"It seems to me that all the concessions are one way. After two years, they still aren't willing to compromise on policing, the flags issue or parades. There is no give from them at all."
He said he was particularly disappointed in the attitude of the SDLP. "The SDLP helped bring Sinn Fein into constitutional politics - a very welcome development.
"But the party has been increasingly adopting a hardline position because it fears the threat from Sinn Fein at next year's elections. The SDLP needs to reach out more to the Ulster Unionists and to build a working relationship with them."
The PUP's chief spokesman, Mr David Ervine, said all pro-agreement parties in the North should take responsibility for the current political crisis. And they must stop turning to the British Prime Minister or the Taoiseach every time the new Northern administration ran into difficulty.
"Responsibility now rests with the politicians who signed the Good Friday agreement to cut out their dependent champions as far as is possible - the Blairs and the Aherns," he said.
"We have to take responsibility. And, based upon politics of need, not the politics of want, Adams and Trimble are going to have to sit down so they are dealing with each other, not on the simple megaphone diplomacy of make-or-break for my constituency but the reality of what each other needs to move this political process forward."
Mr Ervine acknowledged increasing disillusionment among unionists with the new political arrangements. He said attempts must be made to highlight the positive elements of the agreement to doubters. "We have got to identify the benefits, the merits, and the hope and dreams for the future that the Good Friday agreement can deliver for the people of Northern Ireland."
Mr Ervine also said efforts were continuing to reach a long-term resolution to the feud between the UVF and the UDA, which has so far claimed three lives. A temporary truce is currently in operation.
He said the UVF was "holding the line" on the peace process.