Sinn Fein made a submission to the office of the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, yesterday demanding a radical scaling down of the British army's presence in the North.
A Sinn Fein MLA, Mr Conor Murphy, said the British government must produce a programme and timetable.
Mr Murphy said there could be no linkage between decommissioning and demilitarisation because they were separate issues. The matter of paramilitary arms must be left to the head of the decommissioning body, Gen John de Chastelain.
Asked about the comments of his colleague, Mr Francie Molloy, in the Assembly on Monday, when he indicated that IRA decommissioning would happen, Mr Murphy said Sinn Fein's position remained that decommissioning was an "essential part" of the Belfast Agreement.
