The Belfast Agreement is history, the Democratic Unionist Party said today as two of its minister walked out of the Northern Ireland Executive.
The hardline unionists said it was time to look to the future and fresh elections.
Party leader Ian Paisley said the current institutions could not be restored in the future and that his party would not sit in government with Sinn Féin again.
The resignations of Regional Development Minister Mr Peter Robinson and Social Development Minister Mr Nigel Dodds took effect at noon.
The men tendered their notice to the Speaker of the Assembly on Tuesday following allegations of an IRA spy ring at the centre of government in Belfast.
Deputy leader Mr Robinson warned British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair that he must not postpone elections, insisting that would be the "trait of a fascist".
"It is now time to draw a line under the failed process and to look towards the future," he said. "The people should be allowed to speak. They have been denied the right for too long".
Mr Robinson said the DUP believed in devolution, however it could not accept in government "the presence of those who are inextricably linked to violence".
"The Belfast Agreement has been a costly exercise for the unionist community," he said."It cost us our police force, it has cost us the right to have our own Northern Ireland democracy by inserting the representatives of unrepentant armed terrorists in government".
Mr Dodds said the DUP had achieved what it set out to do, which was to "ensure the removal from government in Northern Ireland of IRA/Sinn Fein". The North's power-sharing institutions will be most likely suspended on Monday.
"Attempts to put sticking plasters, to have reviews, to try to find another way of implementing the current Belfast Agreement, cannot and will not work.
"It cannot and will not deliver stable government for Northern Ireland," he said.
PA