The Belfast Agreement has the potential to destroy Northern Ireland and must be destroyed, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader the Rev Ian Paisley said today.
At the launch of his party's Assembly election campaign -'It's time for a fair deal' - in Belfast, Mr Paisley also attacked Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble.
"In the House of Commons magazine, Mr Trimble stated that he believed the Good Friday Agreement 'contains the potential' to transform Northern Ireland and make it something approaching a normal society," the North Antrim MP told party members at Belfast's Odyssey Complex.
"It is Trimble's regime who has made it an abnormal society under the auspices of the Agreement.
"The truth is that the so-called Good Friday Agreement has the potential that those who signed up to it wanted - the potential destruction of this province, this place in the United Kingdom.
"Unless we destroy the Agreement, we will be destroyed forever," he said. Mr Paisley will form part of a team of 40 DUP candidates at the May 29th election.
Mr Paisley also launched a personal attack on the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Brian Cowen, saying "What right does a foreign minister from Dublin have to a say in our affairs?"
Reacting to the DUP leader's comments, Mr Cowen said today: "We've gone beyond the failed politics of insults and we have a far more substantial issue to address."
The DUP campaign launch was taking place amid uncertainty as to whether the British and Irish governments would allow the vote to go ahead while they seek clarity from the IRA on its future.
The party's deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson said voters had 30 days to end the Agreement.
"Northern Ireland needs a new agreement," he said.
"It needs an agreement which can provide stable, democratic devolution for Northern Ireland, an agreement which must command the support of unionists as well as nationalists and an agreement which is not a process to a united Ireland but a constitutional settlement within the United Kingdom.
"Unionists know only the DUPs can force such new negotiations.
"Only the DUP can be trusted to stand up to Sinn Fein/IRA. Only the DUP can deliver a new agreement."
But Mr Trimble hit out at Mr Robinson who earlier said the DUP was the only party which could renegotiate the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Trimble laughed off the comments. "I thought that was quite funny," he said.
"It brings back to mind the Iraqi Information Minister Comical Ali. "There are two ways in which Peter closely resembles Comical Ali, first a very slight tendency towards exaggeration and secondly a penchant for berets."
This was a reference to the berets worn by Mr Robinson and party colleagues when they were linked to the self-styled Ulster Resistance Movement several years ago.
Mr Trimble also criticised British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's position in relation to the three questions he asked of the republican movement.
"One of the questions should have been just simply, 'On the basis of the agreement, isn't your war over?'," he added.
Additional reporting by PA
