The Alliance Party has said it is reassured by the proposed implementation plan for reform of policing in the North.
Speaking after being briefed on the plan by the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, in Hillsborough, Alliance leader Mr Sean Neeson said he felt "very reassured" but said the party would not be making a final judgment on the governments' joint proposals until Monday.
Mr Neeson said his party was very concerned with a provision of the governments' proposals granting an effective "amnesty" to those on the run.
He compared this proposal to conflict resolution in South Africa where those who had committed crimes had at least admitted them. "We believe that in many ways this is an amnesty, an amnesty that is undeserved by those various paramilitary people concerned," he said.
Mr Neeson said it was now "absolutely crucial that there is movement made on putting arms beyond use, otherwise I think we are going to be in serious difficulties on Monday."
The UUP Minister for Enterprise, Sir Reg Empey, said any plan for sweeping reform of the RUC was "an absolute nonsense" in the present climate of increased sectarian violence.
Speaking before meeting Dr Reid, Sir Reg said the implementation plan would have to be examined "in the round" with other elements before his party decided whether to accept the governments' proposals.
There was a "huge gap" on the decommissioning issue. "We will wait until we see the whole thing and we will respond to you next week," he said.
Sir Reg said that on policing the issue was not whether the plan was "good news" for unionists. "It is a question of whether we still have effective policing in Northern Ireland," he said.
"The test for all of this is whether we have an effective and efficient police service for Northern Ireland and, in view of what is happening here at the present time, talk of disbanding the full-time reserve is absolute nonsense," Sir Reg said.
He said the unionist community had seen a discrepancy between the reform of policing and "the failure of armed groups to honour their commitments" to decommission their weapons.
"None of us wants to have security installations dotted around our community," unless they were absolutely necessary, he said. "But the fact is that while the threat exists you can't bury your head in the sand and pretend that the threat isn't there."
After the SDLP met Dr Reid, the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said his party would continue to study the proposals in detail and refused to say whether it would appoint representatives to the new policing board.
Mr Hume said the party was seeking clarification from Dr Reid on a range of issues, including policing, criminal justice and normalisation.
"We are now considering the matter from our discussions today and we will be continuing to consult with our party colleagues on the joint proposals," he said.
Ulster Unionist MP the Rev Martyn Smyth called on the British government to make the implementation plan on policing public so unionists could see "what else they have conceded to republicanism".