A UUP Assembly member has accused the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, of "running away" from the decommissioning issue by embarking on a series of high-profile foreign visits rather than remaining in the North and attempting to break the political impasse.
Mr Michael McGimpsey said: "I am astonished at the lack of commitment Mr Adams is showing to the agreement. Out of the next four weeks he will be in Northern Ireland for only a few days.
"This type of behaviour is a slap in the face to the decent people of Northern Ireland who voted for the agreement expecting Sinn Fein/IRA to deliver on their obligations to decommission. He is treating us all with contempt.
"It is an absolute disgrace that he is gallivanting off to Australia at the moment while the people of Northern Ireland are waiting for the IRA to start decommissioning ahead of the target date for devolution on March 10th."
The DUP has criticised Mr Roy Beggs jnr, the anti-agreement Assembly member who gave lastminute support to Mr David Trimble in a vital vote last week. Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics programme on Saturday, the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said that he was "appalled" by Mr Beggs's action. "The most loathsome creature in political terms is the person who receives a mandate to do something and then does precisely the opposite", Mr Robinson said.
Mr Beggs had considered voting against the proposals for the new government on the basis that it could lead to Sinn Fein entering the executive without IRA decommissioning. However, just before the vote he accepted Mr Trimble's reassurances that it would not.
If Mr Beggs had voted against the proposals the DUP would have been able to say that Mr Trimble no longer enjoyed the support of a majority of unionist Assembly members. This would have been a huge psychological blow to the North's First Minister.
Mr Beggs's support meant that the unionist vote in the Assembly was evenly divided, with 29 voting for and 29 against.