There has been no shift from the core position of the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party over the Belfast Agreement, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said today.
As parties arrived for the second session of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation in Dublin, the Foyle MLA said: "I said last week, when there was all sorts of fevered speculation about all sorts of honeymoons between the DUP and Sinn Fein, that the core DUP position hadn't changed.
"They want a renegotiation of the Good Friday Agreement and they were not going to work with the Agreement as it stands and as it is mandated. That is what has been made clear again," he said.
Mr Durkan was speaking after DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson told the Conservative Monday Club in London that his party would force a renegotiation of the Agreement after the next Assembly elections.
East Belfast MP Mr Robinson also insisted there could be no place in the government of Northern Ireland for any party with paramilitary links.
Mr Durkan said today: "People will read various things into Peter Robinson's speech - the fact that he now takes certain things as givens that the DUP had previously opposed. But let's be careful here. The DUP has at best moved from a position of huff and puff to fluff and bluff".
Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams said there did not seem to be anything significantly new in Mr Robinson's speech.
However, the West Belfast MP said there appeared to be a recognition from the DUP that a considerable section of unionism knew the "old DUP tactics" could not deliver a stable and effective institution.
"Now Ian Paisley is probably too long in the tooth to change his approach to all of this," Mr Adams said. "But I think that Mr Robinson's represents to some degree a more pragmatic approach because of the mood within unionists but not because of any `road to Damascus' conversion by the DUP". PA