Mr Gerry Adams today claimed the motion tabled by the Ulster Unionist Party to exclude Sinn Féin ministers from government posed a grave threat to the possibility of IRA decommissioning.
He said the fact unionists and the British and Irish Governments were focusing solely on the issue of IRA guns could destroy the Belfast Agreement.
"Even if progress is achieved on IRA weapons the institutions will still face collapse because the unionists are not prepared to commit wholeheartedly to them and because the British Government is not really committed to deliver on the issues that underpin the Good Friday Agreement.
"Sinn Féin will not and cannot be excluded from this process."
Calls from Dr Reid for the republican movement to begin putting its weapons beyond use while loyalists waged a campaign against Catholics in north Belfast were a "disgrace", Mr Adams said.
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Acting Deputy First Minister Mr Séamus Mallon said this morning the UUP motion to try to remove Sinn Féin ministers Mr Martin McGuinness and Ms Bairbre de Brún from the executive was against the spirit of the Agreement.
"At this stage in negotiations to have the type of proposed motion coming from the Ulster Unionist Party, in my view, will not in any way help to solve the problem of decommissioning," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
"You cannot have exclusions of this nature and at the same time have the inclusivity of the Good Friday Agreement."
However, the UUP’s Acting First Minister Sir Reg Empey told the same programme his party's move against Sinn Féin was a weapon of last resort. "We have done everything in our power. We have seen our efforts repudiated time and time again," he said.
The UUP decided to seek Sinn Féin's expulsion from the executive after Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid suspended institutions for a day for the second time in six weeks in a bid to buy more time for movement from the IRA on weapons.
Mr Trimble has agreed to pull his ministers out of the power-sharing government if the motion fails at Stormont. The party is due to table the motion at Stormont today.
He has been canvassing the anti-Agreement Northern Ireland Unionist Party to try to secure their support.
Another exclusion motion by the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists has been signed by 29 MLAs - just one short of the figure required for it to be debated.
PA