UUP group warns over failure to decommission

A review group in the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) has warned that political structures in the North could collapse if decommissioning does not begin immediately.

David Trimble: under pressure

"The failure of paramilitaries to deliver on the decommissioning of their illegal weaponry continues to undermine and destabilise the political process", the review group's report says.

"It is regrettable that since our last meeting with [General John De Chastelain's decommissioning body] on 26th September last no progress has been made on actual decommissioning.

"With the exception of the limited gesture by the LVF, decommissioning remains the only area of the Belfast Agreement where progress has not been made. Not only have republican and loyalist terrorists failed to decommission, they have not even indicated if and when decommissioning might begin", the report adds.

The UUP leader Mr David Trimble was meeting his party officers in UUP headquarters in Belfast to consider the report.

Mr Trimble is under pressure to state what his next move is in forcing the IRA into decommissioning.

additional reporting PA