The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, has insisted that decommissioning was still the key to getting the peace process back on track.
Mr Trimble left Weston Park before the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister released their joint statement on the talks' progress. The UUP delegation was also absent from the final press conference.
Mr Trimble said only republicans could now deliver the peace so desperately yearned for by most people in Northern Ireland.
"Our objective throughout this has been to get the agreement fully implemented and to see that the obligation to disarm is kept, primarily by the republican movement, but also by loyalist groups. In order for it to be achieved, it is essential for the republicans to realise that they have to keep their promises. They have to deliver the peace that so many hoped the agreement would bring," he added.
There was little optimism among Ulster Unionists that republicans would verifiably put weapons beyond use. "In terms of the consultations we have had, we wouldn't be particularly optimistic but I leave it to the [British] government in terms of what it says as to what possibility it sees in terms of the immediate future." No form of words, however, would make up for the absence of an actual hand-over of weapons," Mr Trimble said.
"The only progress that matters is the one that produces the prize and brings us to the point of decommissioning actually occurring. Anything short of that will not be seen as a success."