Ulster Unionist Party officers met last night to discuss the party's response to the two governments' salvage proposals as well as their position on the decommissioning body's latest statement.
Emerging from the two-hour-plus meeting, the party leader, Mr David Trimble, said the UUP was still unhappy with elements of the governments' blueprint, particularly the amnesty for paramilitaries on the run.
His party could not yet respond to the proposals in the absence of decommissioning, he added.
"Unless the IRA fully and verifiably puts its weapons beyond use and nationalists unequivocally throw their weight behind the new police service this peace process is still in crisis," he added.
The UUP will hold its probably decisive meeting on its final position on the package at party headquarters in Glengall Street this morning which will be attended by the party's Westminster MPs, members of the House of Lords and Stormont MLAs.
Following a meeting with the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, to discuss the decommissioning body's statement yesterday, Mr Trimble described the latest development as "significant".
"The IRA has taken a significant step towards decommissioning but it hasn't actually begun decommissioning. And of course we want to see that happen." He said the latest development had brought the Provisional IRA to the same position reached by the Ulster Volunteer Force more than a year ago when it agreed decommissioning methodology.
"It leaves open a number of issues, the most important of which is ensuring there is actually a process and that the process begins," he added.
The UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, now Lord Kilcloony, said the decommissioning body's statement represented progress. It was encouraging that the Provisional IRA had submitted a scheme which satisfied Gen de Chastelain, he said, but important questions remained to be answered.
"The key question is, `when will it happen?' Until that is resolved, political instability will continue," the UUP deputy leader predicted.
An anti-agreement UUP MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said the decommissioning body's statement by itself was not enough to end the political stalemate over decommissioning. Time was running short for addressing the "many outstanding issues".
"The significance is not so much in what was said here but whether or not the IRA will follow it through and decommission their illegal weapons. What we need to know is when they are going to do it, and they need to do it because time is running out."
Mr Donaldson said a further move by the IRA was now needed. "The IRA need to move quickly. There are also other problems that needed to be addressed on issues such as policing, demilitarisation and the amnesty for IRA members on the run.
"This statement doesn't break the logjam. There are still many outstanding issues to be resolved in a very short space of time," he concluded.
Another anti-agreement MLA, Mr Peter Weir, said there was nothing to the statement despite the hype surrounding it.
"We are told of the IRA's supposed intention by a third party rather than the IRA themselves. We are not told the methodology of decommissioning. We are not told when this will supposedly happen or in what circumstances.
"The statement is useless. It is like being told by a bloke down the pub that he has been told Elvis is alive and well and living nearby. I will believe it when I see it," he added.
Mr Weir said unionists should dismiss the statement. "Any unionists taken in by this statement deserve to be visited by every dodgy second-hand car salesman or double-glazing salesman in the country because they are completely gullible."
There are only five days left until the deadline of August 12th by which time the Assembly will be suspended if no new First and Deputy First Ministers have been elected.