Sinn Féin leader Mr Gerry Adams said last night the confrontation with Iraq is unlikely to distract British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair from his involvement in the peace process.
"Even last week Mr Blair came to Ireland and was ... involved in 36 hours of solid negotiations regarding the Irish process. His commitment to the process is not distracted by his focus on Iraq and I presume that would be the case" in the future, Mr Adams said.
He made the comment to reporters following a speech to the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations in which he called Mr Blair "the best prime minister in dealing with the Irish issue in a very, very long time."
While expressing hope that the process will ultimately yield a final settlement, he admitted to frustrations, saying the hardest part of any such process "is how you deal with your friends."
As Adams was speaking in Chicago, UUP leader Mr David Trimble told a Washington audience that it was time to take the IRA out of the picture.
"What we need to know is that the paramilitary organisations are going to go away, we need to know that the IRA is not going to be a player in the situation in the future ... so we need to find out from the Republican movement that they are going to in some way either wind up or transmute their organisation from a private army into something which is entirely peaceful," he said.
"I would remind you that Belfast agreement had set the clear objective of the complete disarmament of all paramilitary organisations by May of 2000 and that is now nearly three years in the past," he added.