If there had to be a choice this weekend between the British government suspending the Northern Ireland institutions and the resignation of Mr David Trimble as First Minister, Sinn Fein would prefer the latter, according to the party chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin.
While emphasising that Sinn Fein wanted to continue working the Good Friday agreement, Mr McLaughlin said in answer to a question that "the lesser of the two evils is to stand by the Good Friday agreement.
"If that means that David Trimble resigns, let's see if we can get agreement with a party leader who is prepared to implement the Good Friday agreement. We will deal with whatever leadership unionists produce," he said.
"I don't think you can solve our problems by breaking international agreements or by sending back a message that the British government is not really committed to the Good Friday agreement, that the agreement is not as important to the British government as David Trimble's survival," Mr McLaughlin said.
He was briefing journalists after a meeting on Capitol Hill with the chairmen of the Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs to discuss the present crisis.
The committee leadership, in a statement, "called upon both the Irish and British governments, as well as all the parties in the North of Ireland, to stay the course and continue the power-sharing executive and assembly according to the terms of the Good Friday accord."
The four chairmen, Congressmen Ben Gilman, Peter King, Richard Neal and Joseph Crowley, said "it would be a mistake to turn the clock back and be bound by artificial deadlines on the arms decommissioning issue that has long prevented progress in the North.
"The time for staying the course is now and maintaining all of the power-sharing institutions established under the Good Friday accord must be a priority." Mr King said there was a "very orchestrated media campaign by the British government to put out false information" in the US.
For example, there is talk about a February 1st deadline for decommissioning which was never agreed, he said. He and his colleagues had to get a message out to Congress that it was not Sinn Fein which was in default.