The IRA must accept that its days as an active paramilitary force are at an end, Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble said tonight.
In a speech to members of the Church of Scotland in Inverness, Mr Trimble called on the terror group to abide by the terms of the Belfast Agreement by getting rid of its illegal arsenal.
He added the majority of unionists were still committed to making the Agreement work but this would not be achieved without a major move from republicans.
"Despite all the disappointments, the polls tell us that 60 per cent of Protestants still want this and that support for the inclusive Executive would rise to some 75 per cent if the IRA decommissioned and disbanded.
"But they will not tolerate a continuation of the republican duplicity we have had to endure," he said.
The UUP leader said he fully supported the stance of British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair in a keynote speech in Belfast last October when he called on the IRA to bring to an end all activities which destabilised the Agreement.
"I do not know if the IRA can measure up. But the Prime Minister has made it clear where the responsibility lies; Unionists have nothing to fear in the current climate," he added.
In his first speech since seeing off his anti-Agreement critics to win another vote of the Ulster Unionist Council, Mr Trimble accepted that deep divisions still existed within his party with regard to the peace process.
Referring to the International Monitoring Commission set up last week by the British government to assess paramilitary activity he insisted there was agreement within the party for the need for sanctions against those breaching the terms of the Agreement.
PA