The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, said last night it will take risk-taking "by all sides" to break the political deadlock and restore the institutions of the Belfast Agreement.
While placing the main onus for progress on the British and Irish governments and on unionist politicians, Mr Adams by his reference to across the board risk-taking appeared to concede the IRA had a role to play in reviving devolution.
At a book publication in Belfast he said republicans wanted to see a "just peace settlement, but republican commitment on its own will not build a process to achieve this.
"That requires a similar commitment by the British government and by unionists. For what was and is involved in the process which followed the IRA cessation, and in the agreement that is part of that process, is a direct challenge to us all to break out of that cycle; to break it and to supplant it with an effective alternative," he said.
"In effect the agreement - or rather its implementation - was and is a charter for doing that. Risk-taking is part of this. Risk-taking by all sides, including the British government," he added.
The Sinn Féin president, who was speaking at the launch of a biography by writer Brendan Anderson of veteran IRA figure Joe Cahill, is due to provide a "considered response" on Saturday to Mr Tony Blair's speech in Belfast last week urging the effective standing down of the IRA.
Dublin and London are hoping that Mr Blair's pledge to fully implement the agreement, including demilitarisation, will prompt Mr Adams in Monaghan on Saturday to indicate that the IRA will respond positively to the British prime minister's overture.
Mr Adams indicated strongly last night that the only way forward for republicans was through the political process - a point made also by Mr Cahill in the book where he repeated his support for the so-called armed struggle, but added that politics was now the way to achieve a united Ireland.
Mr Adams said republicans were "incensed" by the "big focus" on the IRA. "The IRA could have stayed with the armed tactics of the previous decades. It didn't. It took the courageous decision which created the space in which hope and peace could grow and in which a peace process could grow." He praised the IRA for facilitating political progress by calling its ceasefire and said the two governments must produce a plan for the full implementation of the agreement.
"It remains my view that this process will succeed," said Mr Adams. "It remains my view that we will achieve our democratic objectives. Can we do so without a political process? No.
"Can we do so with the Good Friday agreement in cold storage? No. Can we do so if the rights and entitlements of citizens are withheld? No.
"The way forward is obvious. Our rights and entitlements are not up for barter. It is time the two governments produced a plan for the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement and especially all those many parts of it which relate directly to the rights and entitlements of citizens," said Mr Adams. "Let us see tangible movement on issues like equality, human rights, policing and justice. Let the British government restore the institutions."
