Democratic Unionist Party leader the Rev Ian Paisley today said he would enter talks with Sinn Fein only when all IRA weapons were destroyed.
He also warned the British Prime Minister Tony Blair faces a huge backlash if he fudges a promise to accept nothing short of a total military shut-down from the IRA.
With the DUP now Northern Ireland's biggest political party, Mr Paisley told its annual conference the commitments which carried it to stunning electoral successes would be honoured.
Chief among those was a declaration that there would be no negotiations with republicans over restoring devolution while the IRA was still operating.
Mr Paisley insisted the block on dialogue with Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness would last as long as he was in charge.
But he added: "The DUP stands ready to enter real talks, provided total decommissioning has been accomplished.
"Without that there is no future peace in Northern Ireland.
"IRA/Sinn Fein must learn that there is a price to be paid by them for a place at the table and until they get rid of the guns on the table, under the table, and outside the doors of the negotiating chamber they will have no place in the talks.
"They have a choice to make, and until they make it the door of democracy is locked against them."
Even though the DUP surged ahead of their rivals following last November's elections to the suspended Stormont Assembly and defections from Mr David Trimble's Ulster Unionist Party, Mr Paisley insisted the position of strength brought a "solemn and terrifying responsibility" to stop Ulster's destruction.
The North Antrim MP also put the onus on Mr Blair, however, to live up to his word on paramilitary guns.
Mr Paisley told the conference: "Today I say to the Prime Minister 'There is no going back, Mr Blair. There is no letting off the hook, there is no diluting of the promises made. It is all or nothing.'