Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams today predicted his party would gain at least one seat in next month's British general election.
Asked how many Sinn Féin MPs he expected to be returned on June 7th, he replied: "At least three."
He predicted himself and Northern Ireland Education Minister Mr Martin McGuinness would retain their seats, and that "Pat Doherty is going to win West Tyrone."
Mr Adams said, with only a few percentage points separating the main parties, Sinn Féin's ambition was to become the largest political party in the North.
"I think that the nationalist vote overall will go up and the SDLP vote may very well go up also. I think that nationalists and republicans now see the value of their votes - they accept that negotiations are part of struggle."
He said Sinn Féin would be campaigning on referendums on a raft of legislation, including ratification of the Nice Treaty, which the party opposes.
Sinn Féin's status as an all-Ireland party would be "very, very attractive to people who have a progressive view of the future", Mr Adams said.
"We are actually coming to this election looking forward to the election and beyond it," Mr Adams said, with a five-year plan under way for the party to achieve its "full potential" through wider campaigning.
PA