The SDLP has urged Gen John de Chastelain to address a meeting of the pro-Belfast Agreement parties to outline his views on paramilitary decommissioning.
The former SDLP finance minister, Mr Mark Durkan, last night called on the British and Irish governments to convene a meeting of the pro-agreement parties. He also proposed that the head of the decommissioning body clarify whether he believed the decommissioning deadlock could be broken.
Mr Durkan argued that were Gen de Chastelain to address, and take questions at, such a gathering the political process could be advanced.
Such an initiative would also put pressure on Sinn Fein to spell out whether it believed some form of IRA decommissioning was still a possibility.
Gen de Chastelain has not yet responded to the request from the SDLP. The Government is understood to have concerns that a meeting of pro-agreement parties would constitute a form of review, which it opposes, while the British government is also treading cautiously.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said he had a "very constructive" discussion with Mr Mandelson on Monday. He added that the Northern Secretary responded positively to the idea of round-table talks.
The Ulster Unionist Party, the Alliance Party, the Progressive Unionist Party and the Women's Coalition yesterday also supported calls for fresh talks.
Mr Hume said Gen de Chastelain could brief parties on what progress had been made in talks with the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries. He urged the IRA to renew its contacts with decommissioning body.
A British source said it was encouraging that a number of ideas were being passed between the two governments and the parties, but that at this stage such a meeting might be more counterproductive than productive. "There is still a lot of poison in the system. We will be judging this from day to day to determine when the time is right," the source said.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, last night said the "unionist veto must be neutralised". He claimed that in suspending the institutions, Mr Mandelson had "succumbed to unionist blackmail".
Mr McLaughlin also claimed that the SDLP had failed nationalists during its negotiating of the Belfast Agreement. "A stronger Sinn Fein during the negotiation of the agreement would have ensured a stronger republican/ nationalist content," he told a party meeting in Derry.
Mr Durkan in turn accused Sinn Fein of being prepared to sacrifice community well-being for self-promotion. "What the SDLP is trying to do is ensure the growth of the community. What Sinn Fein seems to be solely interested in is their own growth.
"They are not going to build the politics of reconciliation and partnership where they are obsessed with self-aggrandisement," he added.
Meanwhile, the DUP security spokesman, Mr Gregory Campbell, has criticised the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, for still wishing to save the agreement.
"It is quite incredible that after the agreement has so patently and obviously failed David Trimble still clings to it for his political survival," he said.
