A one-day suspension of Northern Ireland's political institutions will not work unless there is a real prospect of IRA disarmament, Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble said today.
He said Northern Secretary Dr John Reid must demonstrate clearly progress on decommissioning could be achieved if he opted to reset the clock for a further six weeks.
Dr Reid is considering a second one-day suspension in the hope that it will enable the IRA to move within the next six weeks on disarmament.
"If he [Dr Reid] is going to try and repeat that operation then it is necessary for him to show that there is something going to be achieved thereby," said Mr Trimble.
Anti-agreement unionists have urged the UUP leader to withdraw from the power-sharing executive if Dr Reid opts for a temporary suspension. But Mr Trimble said he would wait to hear what he had to say later today before making his decision.
The two governments have urged the former first minister to keep his ministers in the Stormont Executive to call the republicans' bluff on disarmament.
But Mr Trimble said at Stormont today: "Simply to prolong the situation for six weeks in the hope that something would turn up is a mistake. We expect the government to have the courage to deal with the problems that are there".
With the Assembly and power-sharing executive facing a midnight deadline on Saturday to elect new First and Deputy First Ministers, the British government is expected to announce today the one-day suspension of the institutions in an attempt to prevent them from collapsing.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams today told Dr Reid that it would be a mistake to suspend the North's assembly, executive and other institutions, even for one day.
The West Belfast MP said in his constituency that the British government should instead call a review of the Belfast Agreement while the institutions functioned. "Dr Reid does not have the power under the Good Friday Agreement to suspend," he argued.
"This is Peter Mandelson's legacy at the whim of unionism and I understand David Trimble is currently posturing that he wants an indefinite suspension - not a one-day.
"In terms of the agreement, both governments should call a review.
"There has been, despite the setbacks and difficulties, a lot of progress made here in the last few years and there is a clear indication of how on a number of issues things are going to have to be sorted out.
"The only thing the (British) government should do is call a review without suspension and if that does not work then go for Assembly elections."
Mr Adams criticised those who tried to present the crisis in the political institutions as something which could be boiled down to one issue - disarmament.
He said there was a "deep sense of anger" within Sinn Féin and its supporters at the way its ministers on the Stormont power sharing executive had been treated and at the way the all-Ireland institutions had been fractured.
PA