Mr David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party has predicted that the Provisional IRA will put weapons beyond use in the near future. However, he questioned whether the move would be aimed at pleasing President Bush or reassuring unionists.
Mr Ervine was addressing his party's annual conference in Belfast. Around 140 people attended the event. The PUP is the UVF's political wing.
Mr Ervine said an internal debate had to begin in the unionist community about its attitude to Sinn FΘin and the Provisional IRA. "We have to decide what we want from them in terms of decommissioning. We have to work out our attitude to them in government and we have to discuss their motivation in decommissioning."
Mr Ervine said he understood why the British government had withdrawn recognition of the Ulster Defence Association and Loyalist Volunteer Force ceasefires but he said the key question was whether it would stop loyalist violence.
PUP leader Mr Hugh Smyth said nationalists were making too many demands from unionists and giving too little in return on issues such as the flying of the Union flag, policing, and parades. By voting for the Belfast Agreement, nationalists had accepted Northern Ireland would remain an integral part of the UK so long as the majority of its citizens wished.
"Nationalists and republicans accepted that when they signed the agreement. They must also accept that the flying of the national flag on government buildings is part and parcel of our constitutional position." Mr Smyth said a name for the North's new police force should incorporate both the Northern Ireland Police Service and the RUC.
"This would be similar to the Londonderry/Derry approach where people could choose which name to identify with but once again greedy nationalists refuse to budge. They want it all their own way and have no respect for the wishes of the unionist community."
Mr Smyth said the SDLP was "running scared" of Sinn FΘin at the polls and "trying to be more republican than the Shinners". He appealed for unionist unity. "Our churches are divided, our loyal orders are divided, our political parties are divided, our paramilitaries are divided and many of our communities are divided.
"So long as we remain divided the easier it will be for nationalists and republicans to exploit our divisions for their own political ends."