The SDLP's sole Stormont minister has left the door open to the party one day leaving government to enter opposition at the Assembly.

Alex Attwood's party is widely seen as the chief architect of the power-sharing blueprint that emerged from the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which has seen unionists and nationalists work together in government.

But the SDLP and the UUP - replaced by the DUP and Sinn Fein as the dominant political groupings around the Executive table - are increasingly critical of the administration.

Mr Attwood gave no signal that any move into opposition was possible in the short-term, and while he also stressed the painstaking path to securing power-sharing, previous speculation of tinkering with the government model has caused concern inside SDLP ranks.

His comments came after the smaller parties were challenged by the leader of the hardline Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV), Jim Allister, to pull-out of government and form an opposition to DUP and Sinn Fein dominance.

And while Mr Attwood accused the TUV leader of seeking headlines, he went on to signal that there could be merit in making the move some day under circumstances that would secure better government.

Mr Attwood said: "If opposition, which is what Jim Allister talks about, is done for tactical reasons then it will fall apart, it will unravel, and any party who goes there will be exposed.

"But any party that does so from a position of strength as a requirement of political strategy, in the belief that politics is stable enough and mature enough to move into those circumstances, then that might be - might be - a different scenario.

"But Jim Allister is looking for headlines. I am looking for good government and the best future for the north and for these islands and it is against those standards and that I and other people should judge this issue."

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics, the SDLP west Belfast MLA also repeated his intention to argue against the new shape of local government agreed in the Programme For Government published at the Assembly last week.