Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly has challenged the new British security minister to sack two soldiers convicted of the murder of New Lodge teenager Peter McBride.
The MLA demanded that Shaun Woodward deliver "genuine progress" on dealing with the issue of state killings and collusion.
The new direct rule minister, who was appointed after Tony Blair's cabinet reshuffle, travelled to North Belfast to meet with the PSNI at Antrim Road station on Friday.
He met with DCC Paul Leighton and the North Belfast District Commander, Michael Little.
"I was very keen to see at first hand how policing is evolving in Northern Ireland," said Shaun Woodward.
"I wanted to start in North Belfast because the people here have endured some of the worst experiences of the troubles. The challenges for policing the community were, and are, considerable," he said.
But a group of republicans picketed the station in protest at his visit.
Gerry Kelly said the Peter McBride affair and other state killings needed to be addressed by the new security minister.
"It was interesting that Mr Woodward chose to come to North Belfast to talk about security. The real challenge for Mr Woodward and the British government is to deliver genuine progress on state murder," he said.
"The murder of North Belfast father-of-two Peter McBride and the subsequent decision of the British army to retain these killers in their ranks can and should be overturned. This would demonstrate that the British government is prepared to bring some honesty to the table."
"The British government also needs to deliver genuine justice for those killed as a result of state sponsored murder and collusion," said Gerry Kelly.
He said the British attempts to renege on clear British government commitments on inquiries into collusion must be reversed.
"There is no point pretending that everything is rosy in the policing garden. The agents that ran the state sponsored murder campaign of hundreds of nationalists and republicans remain in place. The accountability deficit caused by the failure to transfer power on policing and justice needs to be remedied. It is the British government and the unionists who are preventing the necessary changes which would allow a new beginning to policing."
