The failure to hold Assembly elections in the North next month will be seen as a dismal error, Sinn Féin warned the Irish and British governments today.
As Northern Secretary Paul Murphy and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Cowen prepared for a meeting in London tomorrow, on the future direction of the peace process, Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness said elections must take place in June.
US President George W Bush's special adviser on Northern Ireland Mr Richard Haass will fly to Belfast for talks with the Northern Ireland parties and will meetin with Mr Cowen in Dublin on Wednesday.
But Mr McGuinness argued that the political situation was "dire".
"I think it is vitally important that at the meeting between Brian Cowen and Paul Murphy that they come out of that meeting making it very clear that the next stage in the process is the holding of an election in June.
"I think anything other than that will be seen by many as a dismal failure. People want to see the reinstatement of the democratic process and they want to see the politicians effectively back in the driving seat, dictating the pace of events and making sure that the peace process comes to a successful conclusion that it needs to see."
Mr McGuinness insisted that republicans were living "in the real world" when they demanded June Assembly elections.
The only party, he said, who opposed an election next month were Mr David Trimble's Ulster Unionists.
Last week the British government rushed legislation through Westminster postponing the date of the Stormont vote which was due to take place on May 29th.
Under the new legislation, Mr Murphy was given the right to set a new date at a time of his choosing through an Order in Council.
British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair postponed the election after efforts to fully implement the Belfast Agreement and secure an historic declaration from the IRA that it was abandoning paramilitary activity forever floundered.
Mr McGuinness said the IRA had made considerable efforts in recent months to move the peace process forward.
"I think that many people who have lived with this have considered that the offer made by the IRA should not have been thrown back in their face," he said.
"There have been people of great courage from within the Protestant community, from within the unionist community who themselves have said that in the course of recent times.
"I think it is time for people to be more gracious, to be more generous and to recognise that there is a real political project still out there but it is only a viable project if we see the full and faithful implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.
"The essential part of all of that has to be the holding of democratic Assembly election."
PA