The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has accused the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, of making his position "untenable" through increasing the demands for disarmament. Mr Adams accused Mr Trimble of reneging on the Belfast Agreement by calling for decommissioning to take place before republicans can hold posts on the executive.
Mr Adams claimed that the UUP leader was reinventing what was agreed in the Belfast Agreement. "The man has actually moved back to before the Good Friday Agreement. I've told Mr Trimble that I consider this to be a very serious dispute", he said.
Speaking after a press conference in Stormont to present the party's submission on policing, Mr Adams insisted that it was not in his power to deliver arms. He added: "This is not a decommissioning process. In my opinion, the unionist position is unfair. The unionists have got to wise up on those matters. There is a gap of mistrust. It makes my position untenable if a leader signs up to an agreement with Sinn Fein, then appears to go back on his position."
Mr Trimble, at a separate press conference in Stormont a few hours later, denied that he had changed his position on decommissioning. "I have not toughened up on my position. My position is clear. The position I am adopting is the position in the agreement. The agreement calls for disarmament, and that is clearly linked to holding office, because those who seek office must establish a commitment to peaceful means in a democratic process . . .
"What Mr Adams is doing is revealing the extent to which he has failed to carry out his obligations. We all know that the ending of violence was their side of the bargain. They have to deliver."
The First Minister's demand that IRA arms be handed over before Sinn Fein members can take posts on the executive was strongly condemned by Mr Adams, who said that his party had made a mistake in not insisting that the full executive be appointed when the First Minister and Deputy First Minister positions had been filled.
"We came together in the Assembly after a very difficult year and we came in good faith. It was on the eve of the marching season and we appointed the First and Deputy First Minister and agreed to come back to the other ministers later. I now consider that to have been a mistake. It was done in good faith, but the terms of the agreement have now been stretched beyond belief", Mr Adams said.
Earlier, the Conservative Party's Northern Ireland spokesman, Mr Andrew Mackay, said that decommissioning must take place now that paramilitary prisoners were being released.
"No reasonable person would think it right to consider releasing terrorist prisoners early when there is no sign of decommissioning taking place", Mr Mackay said. "Equally, I do not see how Sinn Fein members of the Assembly can be appointed ministers while the IRA have not handed in a single gun or an ounce of Semtex.
"It is now essential that the British and Irish governments ensure that the paramilitaries stick to their side of the bargain. If not, prisoner releases and ministerial appointments must be delayed. They must grasp the nettle."
However, the president of the Alliance Party, Mr Philip McGarry, claimed last night that there was no such thing as a precondition in the Belfast Agreement and appealed to Mr Trimble to form the executive.
While the issue of decommissioning was important, it was not a precondition. Sinn Fein should view it as an opportunity to make a "confidence-building gesture", but Ulster Unionists should not see it as an executive-building requirement, Mr McGarry said.
"We must move ahead with full implementation of the agreement. David Trimble is at risk of allowing others to prevent him from fulfilling his responsibilities. He should form the executive now, it should meet now, and it should begin to work now", he added.