The rhetoric of unionists opposed to the Belfast Agreement has contributed to the problems experienced by their communities at street level in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland's First Minister Mr David Trimble claimed today.
The Ulster Unionist leader told a meeting in Manhattan - attended by members of New York's business and legal community - that the problem of unionist alienation from the peace process needed to be addressed.
Mr Trimble, who addressed the gathering along with Deputy First Minister Mr Mark Durkan, said: "There are people who are formally anti-Agreement who take part in the administration and the assembly and participate fully there, but still maintain a high degree of anti-Agreement rhetoric.
"That is having an effect of keeping a significant segment of the population to some extent alienated from the process and marginalised.
"We have seen the consequence of that with problems at a street level but I do not want to give the impression that they are solely responsible for confrontations on a street level."
Mr Trimble said there was tensions on both sides of the divide in sectarian interfaced areas. There were also social and economic problems which needed to be addressed.
The Northern Ireland Executive was trying to address those issues and diffuse tensions, he said. But he added that work would be much better facilitated if they were: "operating in a more favourable economic climate".
The First Minister also acknowledged that Northern Ireland faced a significant challenge from former paramilitaries.
Later Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan visited the scene of the destroyed World Trade Centre towers.
Perched on a platform adorned with floral tributes, personal messages and other memorabilia to the thousands killed in the September 11 attack, they were in sombre mood as the sheer scale of the tragedy was driven home.
Mr Trimble and Mr Durkan laid a wreath lay alongside those from the government of Thailand and the Chief Minister of Andra Pradesh in India.
From Ground Zero, the pair travelled to a fire station in Chelsea which lost five of its officers, and met with one of the firefighters called into action that day, 26-year-old Jason McGimpsey, a nephew of the Northern Ireland Culture, Arts and Leisure Minister, Mr Michael McGimpsey.
PA