LONDON (AP) — The president of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein has downplayed the possibility that a deal on sharing power in Northern Ireland will be struck next week.

The comments from Gerry Adams come amid a looming deadline between Northern Ireland's main political parties on Monday. If no deal is struck, Northern Ireland faces the possibility of returning to direct rule from Britain's government in London.

Adams has complained that Britain's Conservative government has abandoned its position of neutrality toward Northern Ireland's rival political forces by entering into a loose alliance with the Protestant-backed Democratic Unionist Party.

Adams says "the DUP are showing no urgency or no real inclination to deal with the rights-based issues which are at the crux and the heart of these difficulties which we are talking here about."