Decommissioning of arms should be followed by the complete disbandment of the IRA, former SDLP leader John Hume said yesterday.
"I don't just want to see the decommissioning of weapons. I want to see the IRA cease to exist whatsoever, as well as every other paramilitary organisation."
Mr Hume was speaking at an Ireland-France Chamber of Commerce event in Dublin's Westbury Hotel.
The 1998 Nobel Peace Prize winner said violence had no role in bringing divided communities together.
"Violence only deepens divisions. There is no role for any organisation of any description if it uses violence. I want to see them all ended," he said.
"A new Ireland will evolve in a generation, but it must be based on total agreement and mutual respect between Protestant and Catholic communities."
Mr Hume spoke in French about the historical ties between Ireland and France and said the two countries should foster stronger trade and tourism links.
"Now we are living in a smaller world and the time has come for Ireland and France to get much closer together.
"There are very historic relations between Ireland and France. The Irish are the biggest wandering people in the world and before America was discovered, they wandered all over Europe and particularly into France. I'd like to see more French people coming to Ireland and more Irish going to France," Mr Hume told the meeting.
The Lynch, Barton, McCarthy and Hennessy families had lent their names to famous wines and spirits, he added, and an Irishman, Patrick MacMahon, had served as president of France from 1873 to 1879.
Founded in 1979, the Ireland France Chamber of Commerce promotes business links between the two countries.
Mr Hume told delegates his first job after university was as a teacher of French at his old school, St Columb's College in Derry, in the late 1950s. He had also studied at the Institut Catholique in Paris.
He wore in his lapel France's highest civilian award, the Legion of Honour medal, which he was awarded in 1999.
- (PA)