The Ulster Freedom Fighters have been urged to appoint an interlocutor to the decommissioning body by the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, who yesterday called on the loyalist group to become the third major paramilitary organisation to assign a go-between on the arms issue with Gen John de Chastelain's commission.
Mr Trimble welcomed the IRA's announcement that it had appointed a figure to liaise with the commission, although he did not know the identity of the figure. He said he understood discussions had started and expected a report from the commission to be forwarded to both governments within days.
"I do hope that the UDA/UFF will now make an appointment. Of course there has been a UVF appointment and we do know that some discussions have taken place between the UVF's contact person and Gen de Chastelain," he said.
"What's happening now is that we have got a second major paramilitary organisation into the process and we would hope that the third would also follow suit and I would encourage them to do so."
Mr Gary McMichael, the leader of the UDP, the political wing of the UFF, said his party had recommended that the organisation make an appointment to the commission but it was up to it to "make the call".
However, he stressed that the action would be voluntary, as it was not a condition of the agreement made between pro-agreement parties during the Mitchell review.
"Trimble knows that at no point during that review did his party or any other party ask us to deliver the UFF," Mr McMichael said.
An announcement from the UFF is expected next week and speculation continues that former loyalist prisoner Johnny Adair will be appointed to liaise on the arms issue.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the IRA appointment of a representative on Thursday meant the organisation had kept its word.
"The entry into discussions with de Chastelain should at least take that issue out of the political process and put where it belongs within the decommissioning commission, where it can be resolved," he said. "It cannot be resolved anywhere else except within that commission."
The North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, described the IRA's move as another important step.
"It is now up to Gen de Chastelain and the decommissioning body to take this matter forward," he said.
A spokesman for the Independent Commission on Decommissioning would not confirm yesterday that a meeting had taken place with the IRA, saying the commission did not intend to comment on the issue.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, yesterday announced the British government's intention to publish a security strategy paper "setting out how we hope to achieve normalisation in the light of the prevailing threat".
He invited public submissions on the scale-down of security but stressed "any change will, of course, depend on genuine cessations of violence and continued progress in the political progress".
Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Human Rights commission expressed "deep disappointment" at the publication by the British Home Office of a Terrorism Bill which aims to standardise provisions and place permanent powers on the statue books.
Mr Brice Dickson, chairman of the commission, last night criticised the bill for extending the emergency legislation enacted after the Omagh bomb indefinitely. It had been due to expire next August.
"We can't understand why they are extending them in the current climate," he said.