The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has suggested "time is running out" for republicans to decide whether they are to be part of the democratic process.
And he has again raised the possibility of finding "another way forward" if it proves impossible to restore Northern Ireland's devolved administration on an "inclusive" basis.
But Mr Blair faced sceptical unionist questions in the Commons yesterday as he defended today's face-to-face meeting with Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams at Chequers. And he also heard an indignant Mr Séamus Mallon for the SDLP demand: "Would the two [ British and Irish] governments finally realise that you cannot buy peace, you cannot buy a political process and that you cannot buy political stability."
Stung by that intervention, and a similar question from Ulster Unionist Mr David Burnside, Mr Blair denied that his office or government was in negotiation with the Ulster Defence Association over a reported £78 million (€112 million) package "to stop their criminality."
Mr Blair said: "There isn't such a negotiation." And he told Ulster Unionist the Rev Martin Smyth that it was not his intention to "pamper" terrorists. On the contrary, he said his purpose was "to get them to give up violence" and join the political process. "We are at the point where everybody, not just in Northern Ireland but in the Republic as well, is making it clear they have had enough of political parties allied to paramilitary activity and it has to stop."
Mr Blair said there could no longer be a question of the republican movement being in a process of transition: "People have to decide: they are either part of the democratic process or they are not. That moment of decision has long since passed and it has simply got to be clear whether people have made their decision or not."
He said: "If it proves impossible to go forward on that inclusive basis we will have to look for another way forward, it is as simple as that."