The peace process entered yet another crisis today after the IRA said it had withdrawn its plan to decommission its weapons.
The news came hours after three Irishmen were arrested in Colombia for allegedly travelling on false passports. Garda sources believe the men were in Columbia for IRA activities.
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The IRA confirmed last week it had agreed a scheme with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) to put its weapons beyond use.
But today it issued a statement that read: "We recognised the very broad welcome which the IICD statement received. However the outright rejection of the IICD statement by the UUP leadership, compounded by the setting of preconditions, are totally unacceptable.
"The subsequent actions of the British Government, including their failure to fulfil their commitments, is also totally unacceptable.
"The conditions therefore do not exist for progressing our proposition. We are withdrawing our proposal".
It is not clear if the IRA will end direct contact with Gen de Chastelain.
Mr Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said the British government must now withdraw any concessions it had offered in policing and demilitarisation.
The Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs described the development as "disappointing" but said they would be pressing ahead in their effort to implement the Belfast Agreement in full.
"At this time, I urge all the parties to use the period ahead to resolve outstanding difficulties and not to lose sight of their pledge, given in the Agreement, to work to ensure the success of each and every one of the arrangements established under the agreement", Mr Ahern said.
Northern Secretary Dr John Reid said the IRA statement can only play into the hands of sceptics who have always doubted the IRA's intentions.
Sinn Féin President Mr Gerry Adams has said "nobody can be surprised" by the IRA's move. "For the unionists to reject the IICD determination and for the British government to do what it did is hardly the stuff of peace making," said Mr Adams.
The SDLP leader Mr John Hume called on the IRA to immediately withdraw its statement saying it played straight into the hands of anti-Agreement unionists.
