Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness today accused unionist politicians of doing nothing to persuade loyalist paramilitaries to disarm.
Mr McGuinness said that nationalists were becoming increasingly fed up with unionists focusing all attention on the IRA, while remaining silent about loyalist violence.
"I learned recently that none of the unionist parties whatsoever have even asked the unionist paramilitaries to put their weapons beyond use. That's an absolutely incredible state of affairs given the Good Friday Agreement was signed some four years ago and there was a responsibility on all parties to use their influence to make that happen," Mr McGuinness said today on Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme.
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He also called on Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble to make clear what he has done to bring about loyalist decommissioning.
"Has David Trimble met with the unionist paramilitaries who are continuing to attack Catholics in the Belfast area? Has he asked them to stop?" he added.
He described as "unhelpful" speculation last week that the IRA was about to disband. The speculation which appeared in a number of newspapers has been traced to a briefing given by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Mr McGuinness said: "I think at this time it would be quite diplomatic and sensible for people to be very careful about the type of briefings they are giving and to consider the impact on those briefings on current work that has to be undertaken.
"We have seen speculation also in the media about what the Taoiseach done during the course of his visit to London. I'm not speaking in any way about any particular individual except to say that I think all political parties and the two governments in particular should be very careful about the type of language that they use," he added.