SINN Fein has said it is still "not too late" to save the peace process, if the party is allowed unconditional entry to all party talks.
In a statement yesterday, the secretary of the Sinn Fein delegation to the shelved Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, Mr Sean Crowe, said the process could be restored if the British Prime Minister "removes his anti democratic blocking" of his party to the talks and allows it a "rightful place on the basis of our electoral mandate".
Sinn Fein would "play its part" but had yet to see if Mr John Major's government would show the political courage that was so vital at this time, he added.
Lifting the ban on Sinn Fein to the talks and "introducing vital confidence building measures", such as the release of prisoners, would help to restore confidence in the peace process, he added.
"Prisoners - like the rest of the nationalist community - saw no peace dividend from the British during the political breathing space created by the 18 month IRA cessation, Mr Crowe said.
His party wanted to see "an end to armed actions by all the military forces involved in the conflict in the North be they Irish or British".
Meanwhile, the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, has refused to "anticipate" whether loyalist paramilitaries were involved in the car bomb attack on the prominent Belfast republican, Mr Eddie Copeland.
He did, however, say it looked as if there was a "loyalist influence" in the incident.
Asked in a BBC Radio Ulster interview if the British government was placing any question mark over the continued participation of loyalist parties in the Stormont talks, Sir Patrick repeated that he was not going to anticipate this.
"Naturally there is no place for people in these talks who are not loyally and generally and genuinely committed to the Mitchell principles. All the parties taking part in these talks and both governments have publicly said that they are wholly committed to the Mitchell principles. If people behave in a way which is incompatible to that, then they have to go," he added.
In a Christmas message the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, said peace was part of "all our hopes for the future". He was giving his "personal commitment" to work even harder towards that goal in 1997.