The Sinn Fein leader has said that the process of demilitarisation in the North should not be "left to the generals".
Mr Gerry Adams was visiting Crossmaglen in south Armagh to highlight republican concerns about the pace of the British government's demilitarisation plans. He challenged the British Prime Minister to prove that "securocrats" were not dictating British policy.
He said he believed the reason army bases remained was because senior military and intelligence figures were reluctant to deal with change.
Mr Adams denied the actions of dissident republican groups were responsible for the retention of large-scale military bases and continuing troop activity.
"I think it is really disingenuous that they would blame a small unrepresentative group for what is a huge military operation in this part of this county. "British soldiers will always make excuses for what they are doing. That's why this is the test for Tony Blair. If left to the generals, they would be here for a very long time indeed," he said
Mr Adams, who was accompanied by Newry and Armagh MLAs Mr Conor Murphy and Mr Pat McNamee and Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Ms Michelle Gildernew, said the demilitarisation programme was going "at a snail's pace".
He said during a visit to one house, part of the garden of which had been requisitioned by the British army for its base, that people needed to see swift progress on demilitarisation if the peace process was to succeed.
"The biggest in-your-face injustice in this area has been the presence of military troops there and the commandeering and occupation of land," he said.
"If five or six years into cessation and some years after the Good Friday agreement people don't see a dividend, then that certainly makes our job much, much more difficult in terms of persuading people that change could be brought about by politics," he said.
Mr James Quinn, in whose garden Mr Adams was standing, said foot patrols walked through his house and into the garden to enter the base. The base was a nuisance from the "first day it ever came", he said.
Reacting to the Sinn Fein calls, Dr William McCrea, the DUP MLA for Mid-Ulster, said it was outrageous that "the British government should even consider demilitarisation before all the guns are taken out of politics in Northern Ireland".
"We are faced with a situation where either the IRA are so impotent as to render redundant concessions made to them or they are complicit in the activities of dissident republicans," he said.