Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble has said the Irish government is "the obstacle" to resolving the decommissioning issue, and that talks he held with the Dublin government over the past two weeks at Stormont proved a "disappointment". Mr Trimble said he believed the Government was "reflecting the position of the IRA, which is not a very dignified position for them to be in".
He was speaking yesterday before attending a meeting of the Northern Ireland Forum.
He said the two governments' joint paper on decommissioning was unacceptable in its present form.
Movement made by the British government to try "to remedy the deficiencies" were insufficient, he said, repeating comments he made after meeting British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, on Thursday.
He said his party was asking that "the Prime Minister's intention" on disarmament be written into the document.
"In the House of Commons on June 25th, the Prime Minister said three times the object of the exercise was to secure actual disarmament during talks.
"What I want in the document is a clear statement of that and in such terms that not just the British and Irish governments, but all the parties to the talks commit themselves to that, and that would include any paramilitary-related party that would join the talks."
Mr Trimble maintained this was in line with compromise proposals made by talks chairman Mr George Mitchell, but that the obstacle to achieving this was the Irish government and "behind that Sinn Fein/IRA".
However, he added that even if there wasn't agreement at Wednesday's plenary session of multi-party talks, the date set by Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, to finalise the issue, "that is not necessarily the end". "It's only the end if other people decide it's the end, because we've made it clear that we've no intention of walking out," he said.