During heated exchanges in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Mr Robert McCartney, the UK Unionist Party leader, described the IRA ceasefire as "a macabre fraud".
Proposing a motion on decommissioning, he said: "Neither Sinn Fein fronting the IRA, or the PUP fronting loyalist terrorists, have any connection with democracy or its principles".
He continued: "The talks train left the station and reached its destination, but the train of decommissioning never left at all." Mr McCartney urged all parties to support the motion, which was later passed by a majority but without going to a recorded vote. The motion asked parties to reaffirm their commitment to non-violence as set out in the Belfast Agreement and stated that "any party inextricably linked with a paramilitary organisation retaining arms cannot give a total and absolute commitment to exclusively democratic means".
Separate amendments tabled by the leader of the Alliance Party, Mr Sean Neeson, and Mr Mitchel McLaughlin (Sinn Fein) were both defeated. The amendments, if passed, would have brought forward the date on which the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, were obliged to present a final report before the Assembly on current progress of implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Trimble welcomed the motion on decommissioning and said he would direct his party to support the motion. He said the issue was something the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) continued to highlight.
Mr Mallon also welcomed the motion and said that if he had had a seat on the back benches he would have tabled it long ago.
There were exchanges between the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, and Mr Billy Hutchinson, of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), when the DUP leader said recently released loyalist prisoners had been rearrested for crimes. Mr Hutchinson denied any knowledge of this.
Mr McLaughlin said there was "no such party as Sinn Fein/IRA" and Mr McCartney's motion aimed to "undermine, subvert and destroy" the Belfast Agreement.