The deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), Mr John Taylor, has said that he does not expect Mr David Trimble to have a symbolic handshake with Mr Gerry Adams when the new Northern Ireland Assembly meets on Wednesday.
Asked if the two would shake hands, he replied: "I expect not."
When he was told that the Palestinian leader, Mr Yasser Arafat, had shaken hands with the late Israeli leader, Mr Yitzhak Rabin, Mr Taylor said: "Mr Arafat rejected violence.
"Mr Adams has not yet said the war is over and he still has a stockpile of firearms ready to shoot us again.
"We've got to get a changed situation where he can be seen to be a real democrat. We have not arrived at that stage yet. The responsibility rests with him," he told BBC Radio 4's The World This Weekend programme.