A senior republican last night (Monday) branded "farcical and unrealistic" calls by the DUP for Sinn Féin to disband.
DUP leader Ian Paisley yesterday said there could be no talks with Sinn Féin under the current circumstances.
Speaking at the launch of his party's 36-page document Towards A New Agreement, the North Antrim MP insisted: "They (Sinn Féin) should have no part nor be in any negotiations.
"We are democrats. The only way forward for this country is on a firm, undiluted and real democratic basis.
"The IRA has to be utterly disbanded. Sinn Féin, as it stands, has to be disbanded.
"If a new party was formed to represent republicans in a democratic way then that would be the way forward for them."
But Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey hit back: "The DUP's demand for the disbandment of Sinn Féin is as farcical and unrealistic and unrealisable as their demand for a renegotiation of the Good Friday Agreement.
"The reality is that Sinn Féin is supported by the majority of the nationalist community in the north.
"The reality is that there will be no renegotiation of the Good Friday Agreement. Some of (Mr Paisley's) party colleagues know and privately accept this.
"Today's comments are less about Sinn Féin and more about containing those in the DUP who accept that they will have to come to terms with and deal with Sinn Féin."
Mr Paisley said that fresh assembly elections were needed to enable parties to negotiate a new settlement.
"We are not going to have anything to do with this old agreement. The old agreement is dead and buried," he said.
In its document the DUP claimed the current agreement could not command the unionist support which would make it function.
The party insisted that its failings were of concern to anybody who wanted accountable democracy in Northern Ireland.
The agreement needed to be repla- ced, the document argued, by a settlement which was "clear in its terms, accepted by unionists and nationalists alike and will provide for constitutional stability for the north.
"It is clear that the Belfast Agreement is a process towards a united Ireland. Instead Northern Ireland needs a constitutional settlement which is secure and lasting."
The document criticised the Good Friday Agreement for allowing the representatives of paramilitarism to serve as government ministers.
The DUP also criticised the agreement provision for disarmament, the dismantling of security installations, policing and criminal justice reform, the release of paramilitary prisoners and its treatment of those who had been victims of violence.
Speaking after a meeting with Secretary of State Paul Murphy, SDLP leader Mark Durkan said the agreement remained the "working template for all the parties".
"Far from 'dead and buried' the agreement remains the only and best way forward for us all," he said.
The Ulster Unionist Party criticised the DUP's document, claiming it proved the party had no policies.
"The document proves what we have been saying all along – that the DUP has no policies," a spokesman said.
"The fact that they have chosen today to release their paper on the back of good news from Drumcree and other important pending news items shows that they are hoping that nobody will notice that their document is all smoke and no fire.
"Clearly they have decided that today would be a good day to bury bad news."
