Paramilitaries have been put on notice that the public will not tolerate a move into gangsterism, the North’s First Minister Mr David Trimble said today.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader said at the start of a day of meetings with key US politicians that loyalist and republican paramilitaries should realise that their days will eventually be numbered.
Speaking at Washington's National Press Club, Mr Trimble said those living in a "paramilitary half world" have no future.
While the Belfast Agreement was never seen as a magic wand, it is the means to put an end to gangsterism and extortionism in the Northern society, he said.
"We knew it would take time to deal with that but the moment that this Agreement can be seen to bed down successfully, then the paramilitaries don't have a long-term future and the sooner they realise that the better," he said.
Mr Trimble, who was taking part in a question and answer session, also called on loyalists and republicans to decommission quickly.
Acknowledging the IRA's disarmament move last October was a watershed, he said he had also demanded moves by loyalist paramilitary groups.
To achieve the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement there must be no guns so that "there is no UDA, no UVF, no IRA, no INLA, no private army at all", he said.
The focus should not be on which group disarms first, Mr Trimble said, it should be on decommissioning weapons quickly.
PA