The Democratic Unionist Party leader has insisted the onus is on Sinn Féin to prove the IRA has abandoned criminality and supports the PSNI if power-sharing is to be restored by the November 24th deadline.
Speaking on the fringes of the Labour Party conference in Manchester today, the Rev Ian Paisley said although he thought it was unlikely a deal to restore power-sharing at Stormont could be reached in time, he did not rule it out.
"It's no use trying to prophesy, because if what [Northern Ireland Secretary of Stat] Peter Hain says is right, as he said at the breakfast I was at today - that the IRA were going to leave their criminality, going to support the police, going to become democrats - that would alter the picture completely," he said.
"So it rests with them, the pressure is not on us, or me, the pressure is on the IRA," he said.
Earlier today, Mr Hain warned the British government will press ahead with implementing Labour policy in Northern Ireland if the November deadline is missed.
In a speech to the Labour conference, Mr Hain said Northern Ireland's political parties, and the DUP in particular, were facing an historic choice.
"If the deadline passes without agreement to restore an inclusive power sharing executive, the consequences are serious," he said. "Assembly members will no longer be paid. They will have to make their staff redundant. Party funding will be stopped immediately. Stormont will shut down.
"Even more serious, if there is no deal by the 24th, the Assembly will be dissolved the following week - and that is the real moment of truth for Northern Ireland's politicians because they all know that the opportunity to try again may not come around for years," Mr Hain said.
Secretary of State Peter Hain
Unionist and nationalist Assembly members will head to St Andrew's in Scotland next month for talks aimed at breaking down the barriers to a power-sharing government.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Tony Blair, who will attend the talks, hope a report next month by the Independent Monitoring Commission on paramilitary activity will bring a positive mood to the talks.
Mr Hain stressed that in the event of there being no power sharing, the British and Irish governments would work together within the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Hain said his ministerial team in Northern Ireland would, in the event of there being no devolution, continue to take the decisions Northern Ireland's politicians were unable to take.