A determination on the state of the IRA ceasefire should not be sought in the Northern Ireland Assembly, according to SDLP leader Mark Durkan.

Mr Durkan said his party would not be supporting an Ulster Unionist motion on the ceasefire due to be debated by the power-sharing administration on Monday.

The motion calls on the Secretary of State, John Reid, to report on the current status of the IRA ceasefire.

It follows allegations of IRA weapons training in Colombia and alleged involvement in a break-in at Castlereagh police complex.

But Mr Durkan told Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme on Saturday: "We need to recognise that in the process we are involved in there is going to be turbulence.

"But turbulence isn't any reason for threatening to crash land things.

Analysis

"I am worried that some of the language being used in some quarters seems to be that people are searching around for implied sanctions."

On Friday, the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said it would not be possible to sustain Northern Ireland's political arrangements unless republicans restored their credibility.

Northern Ireland's First Minister David Trimble gave his analysis after a meeting with Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness at Stormont.

Mr Trimble had asked for the meeting following allegations of IRA involvement in the raid on the Belfast police Special Branch headquarters on 17 March.

Allegations that the IRA had collected intelligence on Conservative politicians and had been involved in training rebel fighters in weapons in Colombia have also created a political row.

Mr Trimble, who during the three years of the power-sharing arrangement has applied sanctions against Sinn Fein's ministers on a number of occasions, said that this time he did not "make any threats" and issued no ultimatums.