Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness has said he does not expect the Northern institutions to remain in place until next May's Assembly elections.
Mr McGuinness said he believed that the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, had already decided he did not want to be in government with Sinn Féin ahead of those elections.
In an interview on RTÉ Radio One's This Week programme, Mr McGuinness said he believed Mr Trimble had taken a strategic decision to act as a "paler shade of Ian Paisley" and to pursue an anti-Sinn Féin agenda.
"I think that it is increasingly unlikely we are going to get to the elections in May. In all probability, the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party have already decided that it is much better to go quicker and on a very anti-Sinn Féin agenda."
Mr McGuinness said it had all the echoes of previous elections fought by Ian Paisley where he would move forward in an election "to destroy" Sinn Féin.
Mr McGuinness said the Good Friday agreement was the only show in town and there was no doubt about Sinn Féin's commitment to the peace process.
"As far as we are concerned in Sinn Féin, it is steady as it goes. There is no doubt whatsover of the commitment of the Sinn Féin leadership and republicans who support the Sinn Féin leadership through this process.
". . . The peace process is moving forward and the Good Friday agreement is the only way. There is no clear alternative." Mr McGuinness said one of the real difficulties was the fact that Mr Trimble had not wholeheartedly embraced and promoted the agreement.
"But we have to work with him and in my opinion he is the best we have got."
Mr Trimble said yesterday that the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, must prove he is the guardian of the peace process by bringing pressure to bear on Republican paramilitaries to implement an unambiguous ceasefire.
Mr Blair is expected to make a statement on the peace process before the Commons rises for the summer recess on Wednesday.