The DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley tonight warned that any move by the IRA to decommission without photographic evidence would have "very serious consequences" for the Northern Ireland peace process.
The DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley tonight warned that any move by the IRA to decommission without photographic evidence would have "very serious consequences" for the Northern Ireland peace process.
Speaking after talks with Irish and British Government officials at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down the Democratic unionist leader warned his party could pull out of a major plan for restoring devolution in Northern Ireland if there was no visual evidence.
He said recent negotiations had been "in the context of complete verifiable and transparent decommissioning". Decommissioning is the last hurdle to achieving an historic settlement which would see republicans and unionists share power in a new Stormont executive.
Even though General John de Chastelain's Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) is ready to witness the guns being dismantled, Mr Paisley insisted nothing short of photos would convince him that the terrorist organisation was gone forever.
He said: "If anything else is delivered it clearly will have implications for other elements of this agreement. "Over the last few days we have had meetings with the decommissioning commission, the Prime Minister, the Secretary of State, the foreign minister of the Irish republic. "We have also been talking to sources of our own who often brief us and provide us with very valuable information.
"There's an indication that the IRA may be considering proceeding to decommission weapons under the original IICD scheme, leaving out the additional elements relating to transparency included in the draft statement from the IICD which forms part of our comprehensive agreement.
"We want to make it clear that if the IRA does not fulfil its obligations as envisaged in the comprehensive agreement in its refusal these terms would have very serious consequences in respect to the DUP's attitude to other elements of the comprehensive agreement."
Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy and the Minister for Foreign Affairs Mr Dermot Ahern held talks with the DUP delegation following earlier discussions with the other main parties in a bid to rescue the peace proposals.
The blueprint for getting Sinn Fein and the DUP into government together and the IRA out of business floundered a week ago over republican resistance to the demand for photos. Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern will meet tomorrow to map out their next move following today's talks which also involved the US special envoy Mr Mitchell Reiss.
Although the Hillsborough discussions did not yield any breakthrough Mr Murphy pledged to intensify attempts to reach a resolution. He said: "Everybody is still committed to the restoration of the institutions and to power sharing.
"We intend to re-double our efforts to bring about a restoration of these institutions because that is what we believe the people of Northern Ireland want us to do." Asked about Mr Paisley's claims that the IRA was planning to press ahead with decommissioning he added: "I have no information to that effect."