The Ulster Unionist Party are no longer backing the Belfast Agreement, Sinn Féin claimed tonight.
Mr Martin McGuinness claimed the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, was making "excuses" for "shirking his responsibilities" to cement the peace process.
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He said the UUP was using the arrest in Colombia of three Irishmen, alleged to be IRA members, as an excuse to duck out of the peace process.
"As far as I am concerned I believe that David Trimble's party is not a pro-Agreement party, they are anti-Agreement", he said.
Mr Trimble insisted earlier today the republican movement's credibility had been completely undermined by the detention of the three men in Bogota on explosives charges.
Sinn Féin have declared the three arrested men were not party members.
Mr McGuinness' claims came as Ulster Unionist officers met in a bid to resolve the internal split on the issue of joining the Police Board which will oversee RUC reform.
A further meeting of the Executive is due tomorrow as Mr Trimble seeks to convince hardliners that the party should join the 19-strong body.
With the pro-Agreement parties preparing to begin major new talks to try to agree a settlement on disarmament, demilitarisation and policing by the British government's deadline on September 23rd, Mr Trimble warned hopes of finding a resolution were fading.
"I cannot see circumstances where we would be able to resume office unless republicans this time come clean, and seriously try to convince the people of Northern Ireland that they do mean to commit themselves to exclusively peaceful and democratic means," he said.
Mr McGuinness said it was up to the British and Irish governments to realise the urgency of the situation and initiate new talks.
"They are sitting on their hands and they need to get off their hands and get back round the table and sort this out," he said.
PA