Any capitulation to unionist attempts to delay or block the setting up of political institutions under the Belfast Agreement would amount to a "treacherous betrayal", the Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, told a party rally in Belfast.
The British and Irish governments had to be "very wary and very careful" not to allow a unionist veto on the setting up of an executive, he said.
"All of our hopes and expectations are dependent on their strength of political will to confront those who are opposed to the peace process. If they are given such a veto then, quite correctly, republicans will view that as a treacherous betrayal of the commitment to equality for us all."
About 2,000 party supporters gathered outside the City Hall yesterday and heard a Sinn Fein Sligo town councillor, Mr Sean McManus, say there would be no IRA decommissioning. After the rally, Mr McLaughlin said an IRA arms handover prior to the setting up of an executive was "out of the question".
In the keynote address, Mr McLaughlin said there would be no formation of an executive if Sinn Fein was excluded. He said his party had enough of the "insulting and patronising" unionist claims that they had made it possible for Sinn Fein to approach the table of democracy. "Today negative unionism fights a rearguard action as a way of slowing down its loss of power." Sinn Fein sought a partnership and could do business with "positive" unionism.
"We have fought and struggled for a democratic solution and we are going to have it. We have fought and struggled for a united Ireland and we are going to have it." The Sinn Fein Assembly member for Upper Bann, Ms Dara O'Hagan, called for an end to the Orange Order "siege" of Garvaghy Road.