The US special envoy to Northern Ireland, Mr Richard Haas, has urged Sinn Féin to give its backing to the North's new police service while warning it of alleged IRA links to FARC guerrillas in Colombia.
Ambassador Richard Haas, who is also director of foreign policy planning at the US State Department, said it was time for Sinn Féin to demonstrate their wholehearted support for the peace process by becoming a "full participant" in the Good Friday Agreement.
In an interview for the BBC Hardtalkprogramme on News 24, to be broadcast this Monday, Mr Haas claims the time has come for Sinn Féin to move beyond that issue.
He said Americans who have been supporters of Sinn Féin are saying the time is past for that and that it was time for Sinn Féin to become "normal."
"You have to become a true political party. You have to become a full partner, a full participant in every aspect of the Good Friday Agreement, including making the new police force work," he said.
Mr Haas said the US administration was "somewhat more wary" of the IRA following the claims of its links to the rebel Farc movement in Colombia.
Although the IRA had maintained its ceasefire in Northern Ireland, the US was still concerned to "encourage the IRA through Sinn Féin ... to get out of the paramilitary business."
He said: "It is not enough to keep to the narrow letter of the ceasefire. What we want to see is the IRA, and for that matter all the paramilitaries, stick to the spirit of the ceasefire, and the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement, and that means paramilitaries becoming a thing of the past."
He added that there was "widespread unhappiness" with indications that the IRA continues to "make preparations for violence."
PA