SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said today the belief that a deal between Sinn Féin and Democratic Unionists will bring stability to Northern Ireland is nonsense.
As his party and Sinn Féin head to Downing Street for separate meetings with Prime Minister Tony Blair, the SDLP leader warned against the growing view that Sinn Féin and the DUP could come to an arrangement if they became the largest parties in the North after Assembly elections planned for May.
"[The DUP] are giving very empty and vague hints which a lot of commentators inflate, saying there is a deal on and there is a new pragmatism at work in their party.
"This is also fanned by Sinn Féin's self-serving propaganda that it will be all right, they can sort it out with the DUP," he said.
"Now the idea that we are all meant to decide it's all going to be all right with the DUP - in God we trust - and with Sinn Féin - in the DUP we trust - is nonsense".
Mr Durkan was commenting two days after a DUP member of the Northern Ireland Policing Board claimed in a radio interview he could envisage his party engaging with Sinn Féin in the context of republicans committing themselves to exclusively peaceful means.
DUP Assemblyman Mr William Hay called for "a clear message from paramilitaries that their war is over and especially from the republican movement that there is a clear timetable for dismantling the IRA".
The DUP Assemblyman's comments drew criticism from rival unionists, and Mr Paisley attempted to distance himself from them.
Mr Durkan continued: "The DUP have been careful to allow commentators and Sinn Féin to serve up this impression and expectation that they are going to come to working terms with republicans in the context of the Good Friday Agreement so that nobody is scared off voting for them.
"They are simply doing it to minimise the fear factors that are there. The best electoral game that they can make is to ensure that no-one is scared out of voting DUP on the basis that everything will fall down," Mr Durkan said.
Sinn Féin are heading to Downing Street for the second day running after their meeting with the Prime Minister Tony Blair was cancelled yesterday.
PA