The Ulster Unionist deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, has said the Northern Ireland Executive will collapse by Christmas if the Provisional IRA does not hand over weapons.
Mr Taylor made his prediction as pressure increased on the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, to withdraw from the Executive. UUP dissidents will table a motion at a meeting of the party's ruling body, the Ulster Unionist Council, next Saturday. It could lead to the collapse of the Stormont institutions.
Mr Taylor said the Provisionals should be given a little more time to decommission, but he didn't believe they would. He accused senior Catholic clergy, including the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, of interfering in the political process by attempting to pressurise the British government on policing reform.
"I agree with Sinn Fein that everyone must implement the aspects of the Belfast Agreement. The Unionists have done so, in fact they have bent their backs more than they should by going into government with Sinn Fein before they started decommissioning," he said.
"This was an exercise to prove to the world that Sinn Fein/IRA had no intention of decommissioning. That being so, the present Executive will come to an end." His comments were endorsed by the defeated South Antrim by-election UUP candidate, Mr David Burnside, who called on his party to set a new deadline for the handing over of weapons. "I suggest Christmas Day 2000 - that will symbolise and signify the conclusion of a peace process based on reality rather than hope, myth and fiction," he said.
However, Mr Trimble and President Clinton have both insisted the Belfast Agreement was the only way forward. In an article in yesterday's Belfast Tele- graph, Mr Clinton urged all sides not to give in to short-term political pressure. He called on the paramilitaries to live up to their promises to get rid of weapons, and said he hoped to visit the North again soon.
Meanwhile, Mr Trimble last night urged the British government to hand over responsibility for policing to the Assembly as soon as possible. It would help end the divisive arguments over the Policing Bill which is currently in the House of Lords, he said.
Mr Trimble called for a new department of justice in the North, and a new independent prosecution service which would take over the role of police prosecutors at magistrates' courts. He warned that "restorative justice" proposals contained in the Criminal Justice Review could "undermine the rule of law".
SDLP Deputy First Minister Mr Seamus Mallon said he was confident Mr Trimble would win next week's UUC vote.