Mr David Trimble has said the "penny still has not dropped" with republicans about what is required to save the North's peace process, writes Suzanne Breen, Senior Northern Correspondent.
The DUP said anyone who believed the Provisional IRA would deliver were "living in cloud cuckoo land".
The Ulster Unionist leader said the Provisional IRA was still playing word games. Its latest statements about its future intentions showed it was not willing to make the necessary progress, he said.
"We all expected there would be a transition period after the (Belfast) Agreement. But five years after, is it reasonable to expect that transition to have been completed for us now to be living in a society where there are no private armies and there is no paramilitary activity? "Republicans have now got to that point clearly in their minds and they still seem to think that somehow they can manoeuvre through this with a fog of words and some gestures." He accused the Provisional IRA of "playing word games" with their statements, parts of which were "meaningless".
"The penny doesn't seem to have dropped that they are in a qualitatively different situation where they have to actually convince people that they are going to very quickly now fully implement the Agreement." He insisted he was committed to restoring the North's Assembly and Executive but said the Provisional IRA needed to address how it was going to wind up paramilitary activity.
Rejecting the Provisional IRA's statement, DUP secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said: "Mere words, statements and stunts from the IRA will not suffice." Party colleague, Mr Sammy Wilson, said: "This is another batch of promises not backed up by actions. There is nothing new here. It is simply a formulation of words." Mr Wilson said that the Belfast Agreement was "flawed" and must be renegotiated. SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, said the Provisional IRA statement to the governments was not as clear and unambiguous as Sinn Féin had claimed.
The statement and recent "word games" between republicans and the governments "vindicate the SDLP's continued health warning about the dangers of a process being conducted in a way which veers between stand-offery and choreography." The Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, said the Provisional IRA leadership still had questions to answer.
"While the original IRA statement does represent some progress, it does not answer the questions which the Irish and British governments put to the IRA and Sinn Féin.
"Does this mean punishment beatings will end? Does this mean exiling will end? Does this mean targeting and weapons procurement will end? On the basis of these statements, we simply do not know." Alliance deputy leader, Ms Eileen Bell, said the Provisional IRA statements showed it had still not made clear its total commitment to purely peaceful and democratic means.
"Five years on from the signing of the Agreement, it is only reasonable that the public has a right to know that the republican movement has consigned bombs and guns, beating and exiling, spying and targeting, to the history books. "Organisations that have used illegal means to further their political aims have a responsibility to let us all know they are committed to totally peaceful means in future." Ms Monica McWilliams of the Women's Coalition, said full clarity could only be achieved in all-party talks. She called on the two governments to convene a meeting as soon as possible.