The former Finnish president, Mr Martti Ahtisaari, who together with Mr Cyril Ramaphosa from the African National Congress will be entrusted with inspecting the IRA arms dumps, said he expected the inspections to start "before the summer". Mr Ahtisaari said the first he heard about his involvement in the decommissioning deal was when the British Prime Minister's office called the Finnish President's office on Friday morning.
"I have very little detail, except the main thrust of the programme," he said. "I was told that it would be a question of independent inspection of arms dumps and that things should hopefully start before the summer, fairly soon," he told BBC Radio Four's Today. He said time would tell what the best mechanism for dealing with the IRA arsenals would be.
Mr Ramaphosa said he had become involved after his and Mr Athasaari's names were approved by all the parties.
"We don't have the details of what our role is going to be but we have been told that we would be heading an inspection team, write a report and work together with the demilitarisation commission [Independent International Commission on Decommissioning]. I guess the task should be pretty straightforward," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
Mr Ramaphosa refused to comment on speculation that the ANC had put pressure on the republican movement to find a solution to the arms impasse.
He stressed that he hoped to enjoy the trust of all the parties involved in the Belfast Agreement "right across the board".
The Sinn Fein chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said he was confident the two inspectors would soon get to see the IRA arms dumps.
"If the IRA make a statement, as they have done, everybody knows - and the unionists know - that it is going to happen. There isn't any real concern here in Ireland about whether Mr Ramaphosa and Mr Ahtisaari are going to be shown an IRA dump. The question is when."
His party colleague, Mr Gerry Kelly, yesterday welcomed the announcement of a visit by the two inspectors to Northern Ireland next week.