Sinn Féin today urged Northern Ireland politicians to end the political vacuum by developing a "positive agenda" over the coming months.
Mr Martin McGuinness, MP for Mid-Ulster, said the political process was entering a "critical" time ahead of the assembly elections in May and told all parties to "move together" towards ending the political impasse.
He told the BBC Radio 4 Todayprogramme the next six to eight weeks were "critically important".
Any suspension of the elections or "putting off of those election would be effectively a suspension of the democratic process and that would be very damaging indeed, he said.
Mr McGuinness said it was time to give "leadership to the people rather than create a political vacuum" by developing a "positive and constructive frame of mind".
Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble, on the same programme, repeated his calls for the IRA to permanently renounce violence. He said Sinn Féin leader Mr Gerry Adams "still hasn't got the message that they have to give up violence for good". A ceasefire was "not good enough", he warned.
PA