Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble has threatened to step up his sanctions against Sinn Féin if the IRA failed to decommission its weapons. He was speaking after a three-hour meeting of his party's 110-member executive in Belfast.
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Mr David Trimble |
He added the UUP would continue to ban Sinn Féin ministers from attending North South Ministerial Council meetings and hinted that further sanctions could be imposed.
"The party today has endorsed again the action we took and in particular the reassertion of that sanction which I have made earlier this week," he said.
"Furthermore, the party has endorsed our proposal, our intention over the course of coming weeks and months to continue that pressure, to sustain that pressure in whatever ways are available to us and indeed, where appropriate, to increase that pressure, which we intend to do.
"Let there be no mistake about it we are determined to achieve both devolution and decommissioning."
Among those who had gathered to hear his plans for the coming weeks were leading anti-Belfast Agreement MPs Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, Mr William Ross and Mr William Thompson.
Mr Trimble said he wanted to see nationalists and republicans assume the same responsibility for society as Ulster Unionists had shown throughout the process.
This, he said, involved shouldering some of the burden of the peace process instead of taking all the advantages.
"If they shirk their responsibilities, if they don't take responsibility for society in Northern Ireland, then we shall have to take a very, very careful look at that issue too," he warned.
Mr Trimble also refused to be drawn on the current effort to break the deadlock in the peace process over the issues of IRA disarmament, policing and British demilitarisation.
PA