Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister has given a qualified welcome to the decision by the loyalist Ulster Defence Association to stand down its active service units.
Martin McGuinness insisted the UDA must now prove its pledge to end all criminality and paramilitarism is genuine.
"I am prepared to welcome it up to a point," the Sinn Féin MP said. "The fine words used yesterday have to be matched by deeds or more appropriately by a lack of deeds.
"[The UDA] has been involved in drug dealing, in other criminal activities, in racist attacks on newcomers to our community. All that will have to be stopped.
Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein
"They need to recognise that we are in a whole new world where the vast majority of the community want to see politics work and want to see political decisions taken which benefit their lives."
The UDA announced at a Remembrance Day service in the loyalist Sandy Row area of Belfast yesterday that it was standing down all Ulster Freedom Fighters active service units and that it would put its arms beyond use. However it was not clear how the weapons would be put beyond use.
"The Ulster Defence Association believes that the war is over, and we are now in a new democratic dispensation that will lead to permanent political stability - but we believe the political parties and the political institutions are themselves still in a period of transition," the UDA statement said.
"In that context, the organisation intends to continue through a process of transformation that will ultimately achieve a Northern Ireland based on equality, justice and inclusivity where no sections of our people are left behind regardless of religion, politics or identity."
The statement was welcomed by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward and other politicians.