The DUP would enter into direct talks with Sinn Féin if the IRA decommissioned all its arsenals, party leader the Rev Ian Paisley told the DUP annual conference in Belfast on Saturday.
His deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson in similar vein also made it clear to the delegates that if the IRA ended violence that the DUP would enter into government with Sinn Féin.
Both Dr Paisley and Mr Robinson used hardline language to make their point, but nonetheless they conveyed to all sections of the party on Saturday that the day may be coming when the DUP will sit in government with Sinn Féin.
"The DUP stands ready to enter real talks, provided total decommissioning has been accomplished. Without that there is no future peace in Northern Ireland," Dr Paisley told the conference in his keynote address.
Mr Robinson said Sinn Féin must choose who is to be its master.
"Is it to be the army council of the IRA or democratic decisions taken in and by a democratic forum? It is not for us to accept that republicans are capable of change. It is for them to convince us, and the world, that they have changed. On this issue this party will not budge," he said.
"It is the inability of those involved with paramilitarism which is holding up progress. It is time for the democratic parties in Northern Ireland to spell out the simple choice to Sinn Féin/IRA. Give up your terrorism or get left behind," he added.
In an interview with the BBC on Saturday Dr Paisley said that the DUP would no longer accept a Northern Executive being run by a First Minister and Deputy First Minister, which if full power-sharing were to be restored would see a DUP First Minister and a Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister.
Dr Paisley said he favoured the creation of the single position of prime minister which prompted the Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams to query whether the DUP truly wanted to be back in government.
"If Ian Paisley's remarks mean that he does not accept the safeguards and protections built into the Good Friday Agreement, including the right of other parties to nominate a Deputy First Minister, he is in effect saying that the DUP does not want to be part of any political institutions," he said.
"In our ongoing discussions with the two governments Sinn Féin has strongly urged them to establish whether they believe the DUP is serious about the political process. Mr Paisley obviously harks back to another era and the governments need to take this into account. The rest of us cannot wait until the DUP grasp the concept of equality," added Mr Adams.
Dr Paisley in his leader's speech accused the Catholic Primate Archbishop Seán Brady, with the connivance of the Jesuits, of conspiring to assist Sinn Féin. "Now the Roman Church has been called in once again. The church sees the rise and renewal of resurrected traditional unionism as a menace to IRA/Sinn Féin, thus Archbishop Brady's intervention," he said.
His comments were based on a speech in London last week by the Archbishop where he urged greater police reform, but also said that Catholics and Protestants must vigorously challenge any ambivalence about paramilitarism.
Mr Ian Paisley jnr also attacked the Primate during the conference, accusing him of providing "inept and pathetic leadership."
Archbishop Brady yesterday amplified on his London speech on BBC Radio Ulster, saying that the IRA should disband.
"We must dispel any ambivalence in our own community about the presence or actions of non-democratic and totally unaccountable armed groups in our own community.
"I'm calling on people to forsake once and for all the armed struggle," he said.
