There was a need for action, not words, to end the current impasse in the peace process, according to the North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon.
"We've got to get into a situation where the executive is formed, where the obligation to decommission is recognised and implemented within the time scale (before May 2000)," he said yesterday. But the continuing need for decommissioning was stressed by the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, who said the only thing blocking political progress was the refusal of paramilitaries to disarm.
Speaking at the opening of new cross-community sports facilities in Craigavon, Co Armagh, Mr Mallon said: "All the talking really has been done. There is no more analysis that is required. All of the positions are clearly known.
"What we should be going into now is a decision-making process. Stop talking about it and do something about it, is my plea to everybody."
Mr Mallon said that the process had to be inclusive and there were no conditions under which the SDLP would be changing its view on that. "I hope the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein will recognise that what is happening here is not just the future of the agreement, not just the future of the political process, but the future and wellbeing of every single person in the North of Ireland. Those are huge stakes for anybody to be playing with, stakes nobody should be playing games with."
Mr Mallon expected a report from Gen de Chastelain's decommissioning body some time next week or the week after, and he very much hoped devolution would go ahead soon.
His ministerial colleague, Mr Trimble, said decommissioning should have started last June. "The fact that republicans and other paramilitaries have failed to carry out their obligation is the sole reason why we have a problem at the moment," the Ulster Unionist leader said.
Mr Trimble said the British Prime Minister had made it absolutely clear decommissioning should have started, adding that Mr Blair had said nothing to contradict that since the Belfast Agreement was signed on Good Friday last year. The First Minister said the paramilitaries were in "serious default" in terms of the agreement.
Mr Trimble refused to comment on reports that the anti-agreement Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, who quit the peace talks 48 hours before last year's accord was signed, was about to rejoin the UUP negotiating team.
Mr Donaldson also refused to be drawn on the subject, but reiterated his strong stance on the subject of paramilitary weapons.
"The only thing that will make a difference in terms of the present deadlock is IRA decommissioning. That is the very firm view endorsed by the Ulster Unionist executive council on Friday," he said. "The Prime Minister needs to clarify his position on what will happen after June 30th if there is no progress. "There is a mechanism for review and we may well have reached that stage if there is no decommissioning and the SDLP will not move forward without Sinn Fein."
An SDLP spokesman said: "There is no way the SDLP has to make a choice except to stick by the agreement. May 2000 is the only deadline by which the SDLP has to make a choice. The Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein are only trying to deflect pressure from themselves on to us."
The prospect of Mr Donaldson rejoining the UUP negotiating team was described by Sinn Fein as a worrying development and designed to appease the "No" camp. Sinn Fein chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin said: "Mr Trimble should be directing his energies towards positive unionism and providing them with the type of leadership for which they voted in the referendum and the Assembly elections."