Sinn Fein has accused the SDLP of "conceding an assembly to unionists" in the Northern talks process after the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, strongly defended his party's stance, saying it was not putting forward "failed models from the past".
A senior member of the SDLP also suggested that any new assembly should not be located at Stormont, the home of the unionist-controlled Northern Ireland parliament until the imposition of direct rule from London.
Mr Gerry Kelly, a member of Sinn Fein's negotiating team at the talks, said many people were asking why the SDLP had conceded an assembly to unionists, "particularly given the overwhelming historical and contemporary evidence about unionist abuse of institutions which they control".
Mr Kelly, in an address at the Joe McManus memorial lecture in Sligo yesterday, also criticised the SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, saying he favoured a "failed approach" of marginalising some parties.
Mr Kelly said the Hume-Adams initiative had favoured inclusiveness and maximum co-operation between the two parties on agreed positions. He said the two parties had "a responsibility to co-operate and make progress on those issues about which there is agreement".
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, had, he said, made it clear the party would not be "diverted into bickering with the SDLP, when what is required is the maximum focus by nationalists in pursuing a truly democratic peace settlement". Mr Kelly said he supported this position.
He said Sinn Fein was "determined that the unionists are not allowed regain power", adding that any structures which the party agreed to would have to be "both bigot-proof and vetoproof".
Mr Hume had earlier defended his party's position in the continuing row over an assembly. He said: "We are not putting forward failed models from the past, nor will we agree to them." New thinking was required in the North and "selective reminders of the nightmare through which both our communities have lived" would not create this.
The SDLP leader made the comments to the Council of European Federalists in Antwerp on Saturday night. He said there would have to be agreement that new institutions would "operate on the basis of consensus, therefore preventing one community imposing its views or wishes on the other".
Ms Brid Rodgers, chairwoman of the SDLP negotiating team, suggested that an assembly should not be located at Stormont. "We are not talking of a return to Stormont, either symbolic or physical," she said.
The Alliance Party spokesman, Dr Philip McGarry, said the row between the SDLP and Sinn Fein was "the first sign of a break in their de facto alliance". He said the nationalist alliance had undermined moderate nationalists and a cross-community alliance was needed to achieve a lasting peace.
The Ulster Democratic Party has again demanded that it be readmitted to the talks process. The party left the talks, before it was excluded, on January 26th following a number of UFF killings. A party spokesman, Mr David Adams, said that if the party was not readmitted soon, it would not be worthwhile returning at all. "If we were only being brought back to rubber-stamp agreements other people had arrived at without our input, we wouldn't be tempted to move into that position," he said.