What Blair said:
Mr Blair said he believed Sinn Fein and the IRA were "inextricably linked".
Mr Blair was asked on BBC television's Question Time programme last night: "Are you saying that there is no way that any members of Sinn Fein will remain in the executive or the Assembly unless the IRA agrees to decommission, then carries out the procedure?" Mr Blair replied: "Exactly."
Asked if Sinn Fein should remain in the executive if the IRA did not begin to decommission, he said: "I believe the answer to that is no if they are holding a private army in reserve. What we are saying to the republicans and nationalists is fair treatment, powersharing . . . Now if that's the deal that you're getting, fairness and equality, sharing power, then give up your weapons.
"Now I think that's a fair deal for people. In other words, you can come into democracy, but if you do that you leave the weapons of violence behind and you pick up the weapons of democracy, that is debate and free speech."
He agreed that both governments wanted an inclusive process, but insisted the "failsafe procedures" built into The Way Forward would "kick in" if the IRA gave an undertaking to decommission and did not abide by it.
Sinn Fein spoke for the IRA on disarmament, but although the organisations were not exactly the same, "they are inextricably linked together. The republican movement is effectively one movement - I mean let's not beat around the bush on this. There's no doubt at all that they work and operate very closely together." However, the future of government in Northern Ireland did not depend exclusively on the words of Sinn Fein or the IRA: "What I'm trying to put forward for Northern Ireland doesn't depend on what Sinn Fein or the IRA say. Within days of the executive being formed, the IRA or any other paramilitary group that is decommissioning will have to make a clear and unambiguous statement of intent to decommission.
"And then within a few weeks of that they have to start actual decommissioning, carrying on all the way through up until May 2000. Now that depends on actions, it doesn't depend on words."
And addressing the fears of Ulster Unionists, Mr Blair said that if at any point the plan was breached by the paramilitaries, "then we rewind . . . People don't trust words in Northern Ireland - they don't trust words from each other, they don't trust words from me, they don't trust words from anybody.
"So my answer to the unionists who are concerned about going into this is: look, you're not losing anything by it because you go back if they default on the process. So it's not in my hands, it's not in the Irish Government's hands or anybody else's."
Mr Blair also insisted there was no question of the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, being cast aside as a peace offering to the Ulster Unionists. Dr Mowlam had done a "fantastic job" in Northern Ireland and "there's no question of giving peace offerings in relation to Mo Mowlam to anybody".