The Sinn Fein leader, Gerry Adams, tonight said he had urged the IRA to disarm in a bid to save the peace process, in a last throw of the dice before the Stormont assembly collapses on Thursday.
In an highly trailed speech to party activists in west Belfast, Mr Adams said he and deputy Martin McGuinness had told the IRA that a decommissioning move would resolve the crisis facing the political institutions.
He confirmed: "Martin McGuinness and I have held discussions with the IRA and we have put to the IRA the view that if it could make a groundbreaking move on the arms issue that this could save the peace process from collapse and transform the situation."
However, the West Belfast MP said he did not underestimate the difficulties this presented to the IRA.
Sinn Fein's move falls well short of what unionists were calling for - a concrete end to the IRA's arms dumps by a set date - but that may still come in a future statement from the IRA itself.
The very fact that Mr Adams is confident to go public with his plea to the IRA army council suggests a shift from the terrorist organisation may be forthcoming.
Mr Adams was speaking at press conference in Belfast while his deputy, Martin McGuinness, addressed an audience in New York.
Those words will now be closely scrutinized by all parties within Northern Ireland, as the Stormont assembly created by the Good Friday agreement has just another 72 hours to run.
It will collapse at midnight on Thursday, after the Ulster unionist leader, David Trimble, withdrew his ministers last week.
The Northern Ireland secretary, John Reid, will then be forced to either call fresh elections for the body - likely to produce more votes for the two most opposed parties, Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists - or reimpose direct rule from London.
The Sinn Fein president said it was his party's view that the arms issue could be resolved as part of a collective move forward in which IRA disarmament was "completely removed as a precondition for progress".
"That is how the Good Friday agreement deals with this matter. If the political process had developed as the agreement demands, much more progress would have been achieved on the arms issue and the peace process would have been consolidated by now.
"So if the IRA takes yet another initiative on the arms issue then the British government needs to build upon the dynamic created by that.
"The British political leadership has to show by deeds, not just words, that they also want to take the gun out of Irish politics and that they accept the imperative of peace making."
Mr Adams added the Irish government must act as a party to the agreement but also had "a responsibility to promote and defend Irish national and democratic interests and to uphold the rights of all citizens and the sovereignty of the nation.
He said: "These fundamental positions are above and beyond party politics."
The Sinn Fein leader's speech came after a day of tension in Belfast, London and Dublin as speculation intensified that a move on IRA decommissioning was tantalisingly close. Mr Adams met Mr Trimble, the incoming nationalist SDLP leader, Mark Durkan, and Dr Reid at Stormont.
Earlier, Dr Reid told the society of editors conference in Belfast that a move on decommissioning would not receive a "grudging or ungenerous response" from the government.
He said: "I do not underestimate the difficulties for paramilitary groups in resolving the issue of arms. However, Dr Reid warned the IRA and loyalist groups that if they did not "make the final transition to democratic means", there would be consternation internationally and on both sides of the Irish border.
The Sinn Fein leader also confirmed in his speech to party activists he had talked today by telephone to the South African president, Thabo Mbeki, having recently visited the country where he met the former ANC leader, Nelson Mandela, and independent international arms inspector Cyril Ramaphosa.
Mr Adams confirmed Mr McGuinness had been in talks with US president George Bush's special advisor on Northern Ireland, Richard Haass.
Mr Adams repeated his party's commitment to the peace process was "absolute".
"Our focus in recent times has been on seeking a resolution to this crisis. Our aim has been to save the Good Friday agreement".
Earlier today the hardline Democratic Unionist leader, Ian Paisley, also pulled out of the assembly, saying that it was now a "republican and nationalist coalition."
In a embarrassing u-turn earlier today, Mr Adams admitted one of three Irishmen captured earlier this year in Colombia was Sinn Fein's Cuban representative - despite earlier vehement denials from the party that it had a link man in Latin America. #
He revealed Niall Connolly's appointment was made without his knowledge or the authorisation of the international department of his party.
But the Sinn Fein leader conceded: "It has emerged that one of our senior members asked Niall Connolly to represent the party in Cuba."
The 36-year-old Dubliner was one of three republicans arrested in Bogota in August on suspicion of training members of the left-wing Farc militia in explosives and for travelling on false passports.
Security sources had insisted Connolly has been the republican movement's contact on the Marxist-controlled Caribbean island since 1996.
He was believed to have been part of the team helping to organise a trip by Mr Adams to South America which has since been postponed amid the furore caused by the arrests.
But at the time Sinn Fein rejected the claims surrounding Connolly's detention along with James Monaghan and Martin McCauley.
"Sinn Fein has no representative, nor has had a representative in South America," a spokesman had said.
"None of the three men arrested in Colombia are members of Sinn Fein. They were not there on Sinn Fein business.
"Whatever they were there for, it is not our responsibility. It has nothing to do with us."
Mr Adams insisted Sinn Fein denials had been made in good faith, based on information available at the time.
But he added: "This decision was taken without the knowledge or authorisation of the international department or any other party structure including the party chairperson or myself.
"Proper procedures were not employed in this case. These procedures have now been reviewed to ensure that this unfortunate situation does not arise again."