Paramilitarism and weapons remain the single biggest obstacles to political progress and must be removed, the Ulster Unionist leader said yesterday.
Mr David Trimble, speaking at his party's Belfast headquarters, said much of the week's talks at Stormont among the parties were focused on "mechanics and minutiae" of the Belfast Agreement.
Were such discussions to continue in the absence of a clear paramilitary commitment to end all activity, then efforts to restore Stormont will "peter out", he warned.
His comments were made as he presented the UUP Issues For The Review, a policy paper that outlines detailed proposals for the Belfast Agreement review.
However Mr Trimble said such discussions were "a re-arranging of the deck chairs on the Titanic, while the main issue holding up progress has still to be addressed." "It appears that all current positions taken by parties are tactical," Mr Trimble said. "No-one appears willing to commit and genuinely engage until this impasse is broken. This can only happen when the republican movement clearly and publicly sets out their commitments to early completion of decommissioning, the ending of paramilitary activity and the winding up of their organisation," he added.
Mr Trimble accused the British and Irish governments of being at fault for the current deadlock.
"Having started off at Leeds focusing correctly on the issue of paramilitarism, they then accepted assurances and then came rushing off after minor issues," he said.
"I want them to come back to the major issue and get that resolved in a way that people here can buy into it and that means knowing what the detail is and hearing it from the horse's mouth."
To that Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness responded: "People can make up their own minds as to how David Trimble's political fortunes would have been today if he had have gone with the deal he ran away from last October."
He rejected Mr Trimble's demands for an early and unambiguous statement of intent from the IRA and, instead, blamed the DUP for the deadlock. He also called on the two governments to hold fast to the agreement when they make their proposals on the next step known.
"Whatever about their attempts to place it on republicans, or even David Trimble's attempts today to place it on republicans, the big spotlight is on the DUP and whether or not the DUP is going to accept the essential agreement that we negotiated in 1998," he said.
"There has to be a comprehensive agreement to resolve all of these matters, and if there isn't, then I have to say there is considerable difficulty for the rest of us," he said.
For the DUP, Mr Nigel Dodds, the North Belfast MP, said: "Any IRA statement needs to measure up to the requirements of clarity and certainty on fundamental issues and be followed by an end to paramilitary and criminal activity." Indicating that restoration may yet be some time off he added: "Unlike the UUP, we will not be settling for words, promises and assurances, but will require a period of proof."
Earlier, Mr David Burnside, the South Antrim Ulster Unionist MP and a prominent critic of Mr Trimble, warned unionists not to be conned by any deal involving republicans.
Privately, some Ulster Unionists accuse the DUP of dishonesty over its stance at the talks at Leeds Castle last weekend and at Stormont during the week.
Some believe that the primary DUP concern is one of preparing its supporters for a deal involving Sinn Féin rather than the detail of ministerial accountability in any restored Executive.
But Mr Dodds said: "The issues at stake are crucial. The DUP will insist on getting it right, something the UUP did not. Unchecked ministerial power is minority rule. The UUP agreed to this and is still working in the process with the SDLP and Sinn Féin to maintain it.
"Unlike David Trimble's party we will not abandon our manifesto commitments."