Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness has said the IRA statement presented to the Irish and British governments is clear and unambiguous and marked an unprecedented development which must be built on.
In a speech to supporters at a republican commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising in Loup, Co Tyrone, Mr McGuinness urged the two governments to publish their joint blueprint on the future implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
"The IRA statement is clear and unambiguous," he said.
"Even the British government has acknowledged that it shows the desire of the IRA to make the peace process work. That is an unprecedented development. It should be built on. "The two governments should publish their joint declaration, the British government should lift the suspension of the institutions and move to the election of a new Assembly."
The Northern Ireland peace process is currently stalled after the Irish and British governments delayed releasing their blueprint on the future of the Good Friday Agreement amid fears that a proposed IRA statement would not go far enough to satisfy unionists.
However, speaking at the graveside of IRA member, Seán Larkin, Mr McGuinness said the IRA remained committed to the peace process. "They have played a central role in the creation of the opportunity to achieve lasting peace with justice," he said.
"They have shown courage, resilience and generosity in their actions in support of the peace process."
Mr McGuinness told supporters the creation of a united Ireland was inevitable and his party would accept nothing less than the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement. "Implemented in full, the Agreement can set us on the road to a new agreed united Ireland of equals. And it can be done in a manner that should be non-threatening to any section of the population," he said.
"There will be a united Ireland - and the message from today's commemoration should be `prepare for re-unification'. I believe that many unionists also recognise the change that is taking place. "Their fears must be addressed in a comprehensive manner, which will secure assurances and guarantees to satisfy misgivings."
Mr McGuinness said it was incumbent on the British and Irish governments to put in place plans to ensure a smooth transition to re-unification when the time arrives. "They should start by fully implementing the Agreement without further delay. For the British government that includes equality, policing, demilitarisation, criminal justice, human rights and all of the areas, where by its own admission last October, it was in default," he said.
"For the Irish government it includes its obligation to prisoner release under the terms of the Agreement." In a rallying cry to supporters before the Northern Ireland Assembly elections scheduled for May 29, Mr McGuinness said negotiations were a crucial part of struggle. "It is vital therefore that our political strength is increased for the political battles which will lie ahead - every vote does count," he said.
"The roots of the current crisis lie in unionism's inability to come to terms with change and the willingness of the British government to acquiesce to a unionist veto." "So get out there over the next four weeks - help make this the best ever election for Sinn Féin, help increase our strength in the negotiations and help take us further down the road to Irish unity," he added. Mr McGuinness said republicans, unionists, nationalists and loyalists have been the victims of the "terrible historical mistake that is the partitioning of Ireland"
"Plunged into, and condemned to live in the rotten little sectarian construct that was the northern state, we, the people of that state and indeed the people of Ireland, have been denied equality, justice and democracy," he said.
"All of us, unionists and republicans, have been denied peace." He added: "Irish history has been one of oppression, colonisation and domination. It has been our destiny, right up to the present time, to suffer the consequences of the greed, ambition and expansionism of a larger neighbour state."
Mr McGuinness said last week's publication of part of the Stevens report into collusion between the British security forces and loyalist paramilitaries in the murder of Catholics made a full, public, international, judicial inquiry into the murder of Catholic solicitor Pat Finucane inevitable. "Hugely important questions are now at long last being raised about the activities of those responsible for the murders of nationalists," he said. "Who authorised this strategy? Who at the highest levels of the British government was aware that was happening? Who funded these activities? Who were they accountable to and critically, how widespread was it?"
Mr McGuinness told supporters Sinn Féin continued to strive for a British withdrawal from Ireland. "The solution to the present political conflict in Ireland is the ending of partition, a negotiated and orderly British disengagement from Ireland and the restoration to the Irish people of their right to sovereignty and independence," he said. "No person in Ireland has escaped the effects of British rule, everyone has suffered. "Thirty four years ago the British Army was put on the streets in the north, not to defend Catholics as has been cynically claimed, but to defend and maintain British interests.
"Since then we have had curfews, internment, massacres, state assassinations, child-killings, collusion, all the classic techniques of colonial repression. And it has all failed to dampen our spirit or dull our determination to be free," he added.