Businesses and trade unions have urged the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries to demonstrate that they are working effectively with Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body.
Northern Ireland would be left in an "uneasy present" if those with arms implicitly continued to reserve the right to "substitute violence for politics", the "Group of 7" said in a statement yesterday.
Group of 7 includes organisations such as the Confederation of British Industry in Northern Ireland, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, the Institute of Directors and the North's Chamber of Commerce.