The two governments' paper represents a capitulation to the demands of Sinn Fein/IRA, the DUP's deputy leader said.
Mr Peter Robinson said that the document demonstrated that after three years, "the government have conceded totally to the analysis of the IRA and the package represents little more than a dancing to their tune and paying the Provos' price for any delivery of arms."
Mr Robinson said the small amount of space given to decommissioning in the proposals showed Mr David Trimble's tactics had failed. He asked: "What was the purpose of Weston Park? Why did David Trimble resign but to bring about decommissioning and save his own position? "The document contains not one word new on the subject".
He declared: "As a free-standing document the proposals are so absurd as to question the competence of the Prime Minister in negotiations." This made it "clear that the authors of the document are expecting a statement from the IRA in which the Provos will fill in the details on decommissioning."
Mr Robinson dismissed in advance any IRA decommissioning measure as "the gimmick of concreting over the two or three arms dumps already compromised by the international inspectors containing obsolete weapons."
The Rev Ian Paisley described the package as "disastrous" and called on Mr Trimble and his negotiating team to resign.
The DUP leader said: "He ought to hang his head in shame. This package of measures, if implemented, will strip Northern Ireland of its security apparatus at a time when the paramilitary organisations are on the increase."
Dr Paisley said "The insult to the democratic process is that the people of Northern Ireland are expected to wait patiently on how the killers in the IRA respond to this paper. Why should the people of Northern Ireland be held to ransom by the whim of the IRA?"
Mr Norman Boyd, the Northern Ireland Unionist Party chief whip, said: "Unionists should form a united unionist coalition and organise large peaceful and non-violent protests to protect our British citizenship and bring an end to the Belfast Agreement."