SDLP leader Mark Durkan has said that all parties must try to see the Northern Ireland Executive restored ahead of May's assembly election.
He emphasised there should be no move to postpone this election.
Mr Durkan said yesterday that he had a good meeting at Downing Street with Tony Blair which had covered all of the obvious issues.
The SDLP's idea is that in the current talks an implementation compact should be put together which would round up all of the issues and deal with any outstanding bits of the Good Friday Agreement.
The IRA statement did not feature in yesterday's talks with the Prime Minister and Mr Durkan said he did not think there was anything in it to get worked up about.
"There really isn't anything there for unionists to fume about and there isn't anything else for any of the rest of us to fume about either.
"We have heard exactly that type of shrill statement from the IRA before, not least in these kinds of circumstances.
"What we have to do is to get into a situation where the issue is not politicians standing here commenting on IRA statements, where the issue is not politicians standing here commenting on everybody else's last outburst to the press, but where politicians are together talking about the issues we need to talk about and where we can go out and show a common declaration, a common commitment to implementing the agreement," Mr Durkan said.
However, UUP leader David Trimble described the IRA statement as "the work of people living in an unreal world."
"Their underlying problem is their unwillingness to change. Responsibility for this crisis rests squarely on their shoulders. It was their recklessness that precipitated all of this, and it is up to them to sort it out.
"We are not attempting to do anything that is unacceptable and unreasonable.
"We are simply asking the IRA to honour what was in the Belfast agreement and endorsed by the people of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.
"They have not kept the promises made in May 2000. The UUP leadership place particular weight on their failure to keep those promises, and there cannot be stability in the institutions until those promises are kept," Mr Trimble said.
