The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, has expressed confidence that a solution can be found to the decommissioning impasse "fairly soon". In Boston yesterday he said he believed the difficulties could be overcome.
Mr Trimble said it could be "sorted out". He believed the chairman of the international decommissioning body, Gen John de Chastelain, would find an answer fairly soon.
Mr Trimble is on a trade mission to the US with the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, and the Northern Ireland Office economy minister, Mr Adam Ingram.
Speaking via an audio link to the Industrial Development Board headquarters in Belfast, Mr Trimble said he was still optimistic that the Belfast Agreement would work.
The public had voted Yes overwhelmingly and would have no "patience or tolerance" for paramilitary groups or their political representatives who refused to keep their side of the bargain. These groups should fulfil the obligations they signed up to in the agreement. They would not be "able to stand out against the settled will of society" on decommissioning for ever, Mr Trimble said.
Mr Mallon said the decommissioning deadlock was worrying, but stressed it must not hold up the creation of cross-Border institutions by October 31st. Mr Trimble said progress towards political stability had already reaped economic rewards. He announced that a Boston company, Segue Software, was setting up a technical support centre in Belfast, creating 45 jobs over three years.
Mr Mallon announced that the North's IDB is to open an office in Boston early next year.
It is operating already in Chicago, Atlanta and San Jose in California.