The Ulster Unionist leader said tonight that the credibility of the political process in Northern Ireland hinges on what the international disarmament commission has to say this week about its contacts with the IRA.
Emerging from a meeting with the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, General John de Chastelain, Mr Trimble - who is threatening to stand down next Sunday if there is not enough movement by the IRA on disarmament - said he wanted to hear from the British and Irish governments on what they intended to do if there was no sign of any advance.
"If at the end of this week the government receives a further report (from the IICD) that there has been no progress and that whatever co-operation there was is not sufficient to achieve the slightest bit of progress in terms of this process, the challenge to the government is what are they going to do," he said.
"Because we feel that having reached yet again another deadline having been ignored, then there is a serious question as to the credibility of this process."
Mr Trimble said they had urged the Commission to adopt a "more aggressive and pro-active role" to persuade both Republican and Loyalists Paramilitaries to decommission their weapons.
He noted that June 30th marked the second deadline for decommissioning set since the endorsement of the Belfast Agreement in a referendum in May 1998.
The first deadline elapsed on May 22nd last year and he said it would not be good for the process if the second deadline was to fail.
The Ulster Unionist leader said there was no evidence as yet of any further progress in the discussions between General de Chastelain's Commission and the IRA representatives.
PA