Sir Reg Empey has led his party in talks with British prime minister Tony Blair for the first time since his election as Ulster Unionist leader last month.
The UUP delegation said the talks, requested by Mr Blair, centred on the political process and the expected IRA statement on its future. Although the question of contentious loyalist parades was on the agenda, The Irish Times understands this will be addressed in future meetings with government officials.
One talks source said the July 7th London bombings had changed the context for the discussions on the political situation and any IRA commitment to a purely political path.
Sir Reg also insisted that it is not the wording of any imminent IRA statement that matters, but the course of events that follows.
"We will be looking, over the next period of time, to see what they actually do," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
"Do they give up all their weapons, do they stop criminal activity, do they disband or stand down their army? Those will be the things that people will be looking at. I suspect people will not be convinced by anything they might say but it will be by their actions."
Privately, many in the party are sceptical of Sinn Féin's and the IRA's positions. "We've been in this position so many times before," said a well-placed source. "How long is it since the IRA said it would decommission in a manner to maximise confidence?"
Many Ulster Unionists are convinced Shankill bomber Seán Kelly was rightly re-imprisoned by Northern Secretary Peter Hain, who said intelligence reports showed him to have been involved in paramilitary activity.
DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson also pressed the British government not to release Mr Kelly, despite a campaign for his release in the run-up to an anticipated IRA statement on its future.
Mr Donaldson said Mr Hain's decision to rearrest Mr Kelly had been the right thing to do.
He said he was confident Mr Hain would not have put him back behind bars if he did not believe he had become re-involved in terrorism and was a danger to the community.
"Unsurprisingly, Kelly's reimprisonment has met with much republican condemnation, mostly from Sinn Féin members but also, disgracefully, from Fr Aidan Troy," said the Lagan Valley MP.
Mr Donaldson went on: "The Secretary of State should not bend in his view that Seán Kelly is a risk to society and ensure that he serves the remainder of his sentence. It would be utterly inconceivable that Seán Kelly is not forced to see out what is left of his sentence for murdering nine people on the Shankill Road in 1993. The government must neither prepare for nor react to the supposedly imminent IRA statement by being lenient on Seán Kelly's sentence. Kelly's victims have endured enough pain and suffering without the government adding to it with another sop to Sinn Féin/IRA."
In Belfast, the SDLP met Mr Hain for talks. Deputy party leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell said afterwards: "The SDLP wants all paramilitaries to go away and everybody to accept the rule of law. That must apply as much to the IRA as the UVF. We are very anxious to ensure that the IRA ends its involvement in organised crime, dangerous illegal dumping, intimidation and covering up for their own members. These are the things that affect nationalists on the ground.
"The SDLP wants all paramilitaries off our backs so that our communities can get off their knees, so that we can get the people's Good Friday agreement off the ground."