The Government has said it is "surprised" by a threat by Mr David Trimble to resign as the North's First Minister in July unless the IRA begins decommissioning its weapons.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader said this morning disarmament had to begin by the target date set by the International Commission on Decommissioning at the end of June.
He told Assembly speaker Lord Alderdice he had handed in a letter of resignation. "I have this day signed and lodged with you a letter resigning as First Minister as from 1st July 2001."
"This letter will take effect unless before that date the republican movement keeps the promise it made over a year ago."
A Government spokesman said the Government was "surprised by Mr Trimble's statement.
"We recognise the need for urgent progress to be made on the implementation of all outstanding aspects of the agreement and we expect that all of the pro-agreement parties will, in particular following the British general election, work constructively with the two governments to overcome all remaining obstacles.
"That has been and remains our firm objective."
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Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs Ms Liz O'Donnell, said Mr Trimble had given no hint in talks late last week with the Taoiseach.
She said: "There was no intimation at the meeting that there was going to be an announcement of this kind.
"Obviously, Mr Trimble raised his on-going concern with the lack of progress on the issue of illegal weapons, and we share that concern - nobody is more aware of the need for progress to be made on all aspects of the (Belfast) Agreement."
She said by his action today the First Minister had changed what was a common and agreed target that urgent progress should be sought "into a sort of prescriptive deadline".
Ms O'Donnell said the Government was unhappy about today's development.
"We have always worked on the basis that the best way to progress common objectives is to work on agreed understandings of progress.
"Mr Trimble has turned this into a rather unhelpful political deadline.
"This is a situation where we are going into a British general election and the political and administrative reality is that very little progress can be made in these negotiations until after the election.
"That is the political reality we have to deal with."
Mr Trimble told a Stormont press conference that his actions would help to rescue the Agreement, adding that he had no desire to collapse the power-sharing administration.
"If republicans had been allowed to continue the way they had been continuing up to now it would have destroyed the process.
"The IRA promised a year and two days ago that they would put their weapons beyond use. There was no deadline then and they were given a whole year to do something. They haven't done it.
"June of this year was set by the governments last year as being the date for the full implementation of the Agreement. Consequently with the focus on the June date, I thought I would make it absolutely clear that the June deadline mattered," he added.
Mr Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Féin Education Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly, criticised Mr Trimble's threat to resign as an absolute disaster.
Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said that it would be "highly regrettable" if Mr Trimble resigned.
A spokesman for the British prime minister Mr Tony Blair said that it would be "highly regrettable" if Mr Trimble were to resign his post for any reason.
Additional reporting by PA
