The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, has said Senator George Mitchell's review of the implementation of the Belfast Agreement will become more focused in coming weeks.
Senator Mitchell met the pro-agreement parties at Stormont yesterday in the second week of his review. Mr Mallon, who led the SDLP delegation, said Senator Mitchell was "allowing some slack" for the political debate on the Patten report on policing.
Mr Mallon believed that the "focus and intensity" of the talks would increase within the next fortnight. He said the Patten report "had given a different overlay" to opposition to the Belfast Agreement, as it was now being led by elements within the Ulster Unionists.
But he added: "I think that, given a short period of time, they will be able to come in here, concentrate on the review, concentrate on the political process and recognise that in terms of the sloganisms of the No and anti-agreement people, they should not be parroting those in a way which is only going to damage the agreement further."
Mr Mallon said unionists had to rise to meet current political challenges. "It is time they became real politicians and real democrats and real players in this process, which could be so creative and imaginative in finding a new way of life for us all."
Mr Mitchell also met the Ulster Unionists. The First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said he was still "more than ready" to jump together with Sinn Fein. But he said it was tiresome that two years after Sinn Fein entered the talks the party had still not decided what to do.
The Sinn Fein vice-president, Mr Pat Doherty, insisted the party remained committed to the agreement. "Last week we gave Senator Mitchell a commitment that we would approach the review process in a positive and constructive manner," Mr Doherty said.
"The review is not a renegotiation of the agreement. The political institutions envisaged under the agreement have not been established. We will again express our belief that this should now happen. In the absence of a positive approach from the UUP, there is an onus on the two governments and in particular the British government to create the conditions where necessary changes can happen."
Meanwhile, an SDLP Assembly member, Mr Mark Durkan, has said that nationalists are focusing solely on the implementation of the Belfast Agreement and not considering any alternative.
He was responding to a statement by the unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, that the parties should look at other options. The Women's Coalition is to hold a pro-agreement conference next week to counter the growing vocalism of anti-agreement campaigners.