A senior Sinn Féin member today held out the prospect that his party could work with the hardline Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) after elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Party chairman Mitchel McLaughlin said in reality Sinn Féin was already working with the Reverend Ian Paisley's party.
The DUP launched its election campaign today and vowed to end the "string of concessions" given to republicans by the British government. It has also demanded a renegotiation of the Belfast Agreement - a position strongly opposed by Sinn Féin.
Doubts continue to hang over the proposed May 29th poll amid calls from British Prime Minister Tony Blair for republicans to state clearly their commitment to purely democratic means.
However, Mr McLaughlin today said the election must go ahead and insisted his party would be able to work with the DUP.
"We are working with the DUP in councils right across the north," he said.
"It's not unusual any longer to have a Sinn Féin chairperson with a DUP deputy or vice versa. It has happened and people need to take a look at the fact that out of the 26 councils here, 24 of them have formal ongoing power-sharing arrangements."
He added: "We are doing business with the DUP and we can do business with the DUP but we would prefer that the [Ulster] Unionist Party and the unionist community return a majority of representatives who were pro-agreement because life would be very much easier for us all".
He said the majority of unionists were still supportive of the Agreement and wished it to be implemented fully.
PA