The Sinn Fein President, Mr Gerry Adams, said his party may end its role as a "messenger" on the issue of IRA decommissioning after being "continually slapped in the face" by the Ulster Unionists and British government.
He also believed the Government could reinstate Articles 2 and 3 of the Constitution if suspension of the Northern Ireland executive and its institutions continued for a long period.
In an interview published in this week's edition of the London-based Irish Post, Mr Adams said he was "generally an optimistic person" but he could "only talk for so long about the one issue without going round in circles". Sinn Fein had acted as a mediator on IRA arms decommissioning "to the best of our abilities" but the level of engagement might be re-evaluated following suspension.
"I'm a wee bit guarded on how I answer this because I haven't had the chance to think about it, but I certainly think the time for Sinn Fein to be a messenger on this arms issue is over, or almost over," he said.
The interview, published yesterday, took place last Wednesday.
Mr Adams insisted Sinn Fein had already carried out its responsibility under the Belfast Agreement to encourage the IRA to decommission. "The Good Friday agreement is very explicit on this. It says `do your utmost' and I would defend that, as long as I know in my heart I've done my utmost. I clearly have and I refuse to accept . . . that anyone who votes for Sinn Fein has to pass another test which is dependent on the IRA doing something."
A Sinn Fein spokesman said the party, and in particular Mr Adams, had not only fulfilled its obligations on decommissioning "but has worked harder and more intensely" than any party to resolve the issue. ein is not prepared to constantly exhaust itself in that way." The spokesman said there was a collective responsibility to resolve decommissioning and Sinn Fein was not prepared to have its efforts measured "through a unionist filter".
The Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, said if Mr Adams's comments were sincere they represented an "abdication of influence and responsibility".
"He is saying we have played the duplicitous game to its full extent and now we are not in a position to talk real, meaningful language," Mr Maginnis said.
On Articles 2 and 3, Mr Adams said he had received advice that reinstating the Articles "is one course the Irish Government would have to contemplate taking" if London was set on a long suspension.
He also spoke of "the lack of consensus" among nationalists on IRA decommissioning. He said the deputy SDLP leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, had failed to grasp the bigger issue: "What I think is motivated here is party politics. What John Hume had, and I hope what I have, is a view that saw the process as bigger than the party political interest. I don't think that Seamus has grasped that."