Sinn Fein MP Mr Martin McGuinness said last night that decommissioning could still be addressed, even though the suspension of the Assembly had left "a huge gulf of distrust" between republicans and the British government.
"I happen to believe that if we work together in all of this, if we get the institutions up, that there's no way in a million years that the dissidents or the rejectionists can even have a remote hope of winning," he insisted, in an interview with the BBC.
Earlier, speaking in west Belfast yesterday, the former education minister said maintaining the suspension of the North's political institutions during a review of the Belfast Agreement would be a "serious blunder".
The Assembly and the Executive should be reinstated urgently, he said. "We think a review would be a serious mistake. We could be locked in there for two years and effectively resolve nothing. This crisis needs to be resolved and it can only be resolved by the reestablishment of the institutions which were illegally dismantled last Friday."
Mr McGuinness said the Provisional IRA ceasefire remained intact. "What is not intact is the political process. There is an unravelling that is taking place and we need to ensure that is arrested."
He accused the British government of siding with the unionists and said the problem could only be resolved if the decommissioning issue was left to Gen de Chastelain's commission.
He was critical of the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, for his comments on Provisional IRA decommissioning, saying he had failed the peace process when he was Taoiseach and had not learnt from his mistakes. However, Ms Bernadette Sands McKevitt, of the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, accused the Sinn Fein leadership of hypocrisy in complaining about the direction of the peace process and accused them of following a "failed strategy".
The Belfast Agreement and the Mitchell principles had clearly enshrined the unionist veto, yet were endorsed by the Sinn Fein leadership, she said.
"To now cry foul when the veto is brandished questions the judgment or motives of the Provisional Sinn Fein leadership and underlines their failed strategy. Why is Provisional Sinn Fein continuing to participate in this sham which is really only about securing British rule?"
The Ulster Democratic Party, the UDA's political wing, called on the SDLP to consider re-forming the Stormont administration without Sinn Fein.
Party leader Mr Gary McMichael claimed the Provisional IRA's withdrawal of co-operation from the de Chastelain commission meant it had effectively turned its back on the opportunity of breaking the political stalemate.
DUP Assembly member Mr Gregory Campbell said the "illusion" that the Provisional IRA was about to decommission had been exposed.
Meanwhile, both the Alliance Party and the anti-Agreement Northern Ireland Unionist Party yesterday met the de Chastelain commission. The Alliance leader, Mr Sean Neeson, said every effort had to be made to re-establish contact between the Provisional IRA and the body. "Gen de Chastelain and his colleagues are men of integrity. It is clear from their last report that they saw some encouraging signs of movement from the IRA."