Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has urged the British and Irish governments to recall the Northern Ireland Assembly and have ministers elected by April.
Gerry Adams wants the assembly restored
Mr Adams has written to Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern before the prime ministers meet on Wednesday to finalise a strategy for restoring devolution.
Mr Adams said any notion of an assembly without full powers was "dead".
He said the DUP should agree to devolution, otherwise the governments should work closely together.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said on Monday that the two prime ministers would not be pushed aside by anything which would get in the way of the process.
Talks planned for Stormont on Wednesday have been postponed.
However, Mr Hain said Political Development Minister David Hanson would soon be briefing the parties.
He will speak to them on the paper for the preparations for the restoration of the institutions, said Mr Hain.
'Lack of direction
Mr Hain and Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern will also attend the prime ministers' meeting on Wednesday.
Some politicians believe the postponement of the talks in Belfast was a sign of a lack of direction in the political process.
Mr Hain had highlighted Wednesday as a target date for potential changes to the rules of any future Stormont assembly.
Downing Street said neither a joint British-Irish news conference nor a definitive policy statement was expected after this week's prime ministerial talks.
Devolved government at Stormont was suspended in 2002 following allegations of a republican spy ring at the Northern Ireland Office.