SDLP says suspension of assembly should be 'avoided at all costs'

The SDLP has said the suspension of the assembly should be "avoided at all costs".

MLA Alban Maginness said such a move would be "disastrous" and would "put back politics" in Northern Ireland.

Alliance leader David Ford said his party would reconsider its role in government if evidence emerged to show the Provisional IRA is still active.

Stormont has been plunged into a crisis after the murder of ex-IRA man Kevin McGuigan Sr last month.

The Ulster Unionists withdrew from the executive after police said Provisional IRA members had a role in the killing.

The British and Irish governments have announced that fresh talks will begin next week to try to resolve political difficulties.

Mr Maginness said there was no need to adjourn the assembly, which he said had operated "fully and completely" during the Stormont House negotiations.

He said the SDLP was ready to go into intensive negotiations in relation to all outstanding issues of the Stormont House agreement and other issues affecting the executive.

Mr Maginness also warned against the British government "dancing to the agenda of any one political party".

He made his comments after meeting Secretary of State Theresa Villiers.

Sinn Féin MLA and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he had a "useful conversation" with Prime Minister David Cameron and added that it would be a "grave mistake" if the assembly was suspended.

"In our conversation I think David Cameron recognises that," he added.

Mr McGuinness said there "was no case whatsoever for there to be any armed group against the backdrop of the peace agreements that have been made between all of the major political leaders that exist on this island and of the support that there is from Britain for the ongoing success of the peace process".

Ms Villiers also held talks with the DUP, the Alliance Party and the Ulster Unionists on Thursday.

DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson said that Ms Villiers would make a statement in the House of Commons on Monday.

He said the DUP wanted the government to legislate at Westminster to suspend the Stormont institutions to "create space" for talks.

However, he said that if the government did not do that, the DUP would take "decisive" action to ensure there would not be "business as usual" with the assembly.

Mr Ford said the Alliance Party wanted "clear and specific" evidence before it decided on its position.

The party has two ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive - Mr Ford is the justice minister and Stephen Farry heads the Department for Employment and Learning.

Mr Ford said if evidence was to emerge then his party would then take "action" to maintain the "integrity of politics against the threat of paramilitary violence".

"We made it very clear when [Mr McGuigan Sr's murder] arose that we would judge matters on the basis of evidence," Mr Ford told BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme.

"We have a degree of intelligence from the police, we have a line of inquiry from the police.

"What we don't have at the moment is evidence."

Mr Ford said his party supported a return of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which was set up to monitor paramilitary activity, or a body similar to it.

The assembly is due to return on Monday.

Sinn Féin has tabled a motion condemning the recent murders of Gerard 'Jock' Davison and Kevin McGuigan Sr.

Chief Constable George Hamilton said last month that the Provisional IRA still has structures in place at a senior level.

He added, however, that there was no evidence that the murder of Mr McGuigan Sr had been sanctioned by the organisation's leadership.

But Sinn Féin said the IRA had "gone away" after calling an end to its armed campaign in 2005.

The Ulster Unionist Party pulled out of the Northern Ireland Executive last week, saying it could not trust Sinn Féin.

On Wednesday, the DUP said it would be taking its "own action" if the Prime Minister David Cameron did not step in to resolve the Stormont crisis.

"Intensive" talks between the parties have now been proposed by the prime minister in a bid to find a resolution.