Sinn Fein has sounded a warning that the current difficulties over policing, demilitarisation and North-South Ministerial Council meetings could threaten the leadership of Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness.
The Police Bill, the absence of a demilitarisation timetable and Mr David Trimble's ban on Sinn Fein Ministers attending NSMC meetings had caused intense anger among republicans, Sinn Fein sources said.
The Sinn Fein Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness, and Minister of Health, Ms Bairbre de Brun, yesterday won the right to legally challenge Mr Trimble's veto on NSMC meetings, but there will be no ruling before tomorrow when an NSMC education meeting was originally scheduled to be held in Dublin.
Accordingly, Mr McGuinness is not expected to travel to Dublin tomorrow for a meeting with his Dublin counterpart, Dr Woods, because the meeting would not have full NSMC status. Mr McGuinness may, however, talk to Dr Woods by telephone.
Senior Sinn Fein figures have been careful not to compare this situation to the period before the breakdown of the first IRA ceasefire in 1996 but in the past week they have been emphasising the strains within the Provisional republican movement.
"I think we are in a huge crisis, the biggest crisis we have seen within the process," said a leading Sinn Fein source yesterday. In the current circumstances it would be difficult for Sinn Fein leaders to defend their political strategy in support of the Belfast Agreement to the broad republican movement, he added.
He accused the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, of breaking commitments the British government made to Sinn Fein and the IRA during the Hillsborough talks last May on issues such as Patten and demilitarisation.
Asked about the prospect of IRA re-engagement with the decommissioning body the source said the IRA had "very, very limited scope" to move because of the current political difficulties.
"Peter Mandelson may have the notion that because the IRA moved to save the process before, that it naturally follows it will move again. If that is his calculation then he is making a huge mistake," the senior Sinn Fein politician added.
A British source denied Mr Mandelson had broken pledges made at Hillsborough. He said the British government had publicly paid tribute to the Sinn Fein leadership and was conscious of the problems caused by the NSMC ban, which the British had opposed.
It was a fact however that Mr Trimble also had difficulties. "The reality is that both sides have to be on board this process to move forward. Our role is to help both sides find a middle way out of this difficulty," added the source.
Clare Murphy adds:
Speaking after meeting the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in Dublin, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, yesterday said that the peace process was in a "rolling crisis - people should not become complacent about that".
He said it was "unlikely" that a bilateral meeting would take place between Mr McGuinness and Dr Woods tomorrow.
"No amount of bilateralism can substitute for the proper functioning of this agreement." He said the two Sinn Fein Ministers had a "strong case" in their judicial review case against Mr Trimble's decision barring them from NSMC meetings because of the absence of movement on IRA decommissioning. Commenting on the Policing Bill, he said it would not bring the "new beginning" to policing that the Patten Report could have achieved. "The British have missed a hugely important opportunity."
He said "no basis" existed for a review of the implementation of the agreement other than the fact Mr Trimble had breached his responsibilities as First Minister.
