Decommissioning of paramilitary weapons is an "obligation" under the Belfast Agreement, and without it the agreement cannot work, Northern Ireland's First Minister told the conference yesterday.
Mr Trimble told the delegates: "There has been no movement on the part of the paramilitaries. This is not a precondition. It is an obligation under the agreement. It must happen if the agreement is to work. "No one wants this agreement to work more than I do. But every part of it must be seen to be working. Real peace can only be achieved if every part of the agreement is fully implemented." Mr Trimble played tribute to the role of the Prime Minister in the peace talks. "Sometimes in history individuals do make a difference. I have no doubt that Tony Blair made a difference to the talks; without him there would have been no agreement."
"Prime Minister, your commitment to creating a new future for Northern Ireland will give our people the chance to start again and put the past behind them." He said the agreement allowed for an Assembly in which" unionists and nationalists will work together to build a stable and prosperous Northern Ireland. "The North-South and British-Irish councils will bring these islands closer together; they are part of the project of governmental reform across the United Kingdom and a closer relationship between all parts of the British Isles." Mr Trimble said the North was doing in six months what Scotland and Wales were doing in 18.
"The Assembly is there, with every party sitting in the same chamber for the first time ever in Ulster's history. Very soon the North-South and British-Irish councils will meet.
"Policing is being reviewed. Troop levels are being reduced. Forty-two paramilitary prisoners have been released. Almost half of the prisoners could be out by Christmas.
"But violence has not ended. And there has been no progress on the decommissioning of weapons."
Mr Trimble said the summer had brought the atrocities in Ballymoney and Omagh, and in Northern Ireland there had been some 80 expulsions by republicans and loyalists since Good Friday. "We have been reminded of the fatwa against Salman Rushdie. The time has come to lift the terrorist fatwas which besmirch our community."
There had been 66 paramilitary beatings and 31 shootings, he said.
"Thirteen days after the agreement the IRA attacked and shot in the knees and ankles the oldest victim of a punishment attack ever - John Brown - a completely innocent 79-year-old whose address they had misread." Mr Trimble said these attacks were carried out "by the very organisations benefiting from prisoner releases."
The people need peace, Mr Trimble said. "They want to see peace. They want to feel peace.
"And I say this again to those who are crossing the bridge from terror to democracy. Every move you make towards peace, I welcome. Every pledge you make to peace, I hold you to.
As First Minister I will work with anyone who has the interests of peace at heart. I will be frank. I will be firm. Every part of the agreement, including decommissioning, must be implemented.
"But those who take the road of peace in genuine good faith will find me a willing leader in that journey.
"We must all play our part in the historic and honourable task of raising up for this generation the new Northern Ireland.
"Let this year be the last year of the troubles. The war is over. There is no justification moral, or political, for any violence," he said.
"We are building a pluralist parliament for a pluralist people. Division based on competing national identities must be a thing of the past. Real politics will be the order of the day."