Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble was urged tonight to quit as Northern Ireland First Minister after the Irish Government changed its regulations governing decommissioning.
Democratic Unionist deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson called on Mr Trimble to resign now instead of July 1st after Ireland brought its legislation into line with Britain on the amnesty period for paramilitary disarmament.
Minister for Justice Mr John O'Donoghue this afternoon extended the amnesty rules in the State's 1997 Decommissioning Act until February 2002 instead of next Tuesday.
The move means the expiry date for decommissioning legislation will be next February in the Britain and Ireland.
Mr Robinson claimed tonight the move was evidence the two governments did not believe the IRA would disarm by Mr Trimble's deadline of July 1st.
He said: "They [the governments] obviously do not expect the IRA do deliver by then and if that's the case then why should David Trimble go through this sham of setting a deadline?
"He should quit now as First Minister as it is clear his so-called mechanism for achieving decommissioning is not going to work."
Mr O'Donoghue's move worried anti-Belfast Agreement Ulster Unionist MP, the Rev Martin Smyth.
But South Belfast MP, who mounted a leadership challenge to David Trimble in March 2000, said he was convinced the First Minister was serious about stepping down on July 1st if the IRA did not move on decommissioning.
"The IRA has had over three years to move on arms. It hasn't done anything so far. It is going to have to be forced to do something," he said.
PA