Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid today rejected claims that the British government was fixated over IRA decommissioning.
Dr Reid was reacting to warnings from Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams that the peace process could fail if the government remained obsessed with the issue of weapons.
"Gerry Adams is an intelligent man, he knows that to argue that I and the British government have been exclusively fixated with decommissioning is just plain wrong," he told BBC 1's Breakfast Frost programme.
The Northern Ireland Secretary said the government had reduced the numbers of troops to their lowest levels in 30 years but added that further reductions would depend on the threat from dissident groups like the Real IRA.
"Being an intelligent man, Gerry Adams and the other leaders know that it is not merely the Provisional IRA that are using weapons," he said.
Dr Reid said the bomb attack on the BBC last week showed that the security forces must remain vigilant as the government continues to make progress over policing and demilitarisation.
"The dissident republicans are a threat. Loyalist terrorists have been involved in sectarian attacks on Roman Catholics, all at a time when we are transforming the police service in Northern Ireland."
Dr Reid said a small amount of progress had been made at last week's round-table talks at Hillsborough but the government would continue talking to the parties to bring about a breakthrough on decommissioning, policing and demilitarisation.
He welcomed the IRA's re-engagement with the De Chastelain commission on decommissioning which hoped would eventually lead to Mr Trimble removing the ban on Sinn F&eacut;ein ministers attending cross border meetings.
"There was a small step forward but more importantly I think there is now a route map for the next few weeks and months. I was talking to one of the parties yesterday and those talks will continue," he added.
But his sense of optimism was not shared by Mr Adams, who in a speech to party members in Dublin, said the peace process could fail if the decommissioning issue was not handled properly.
He told party activists in Dublin that while talks in Hillsborough last Thursday on the peace process were welcome, the real progress made was the IRA's decision to re-enter into discussions with the disarmament commission.
Mr Adams repeated his warning that Sinn Féin had neither "the responsibility, the obligation or the desire to shepherd the IRA into disarming on UUP or British government terms".
He insisted the British Government's policing reforms currently being implemented in Northern Ireland did not meet the Belfast Agreement's terms of reference for the Patten Commission and that Prime Minister Tony Blair knew this.
PA