The SDLP MP, Mr Eddie McGrady, has accused both Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists of using the decommissioning issue to prevent implementation of the Belfast Agreement. He said the international body on decommissioning had been set up to stop political haggling on the matter.
"We can certainly articulate our concerns, but it is clear that decommissioning should not be brought back into inter-party negotiations and political parties have no right to sit in judgment. Yet Sinn Fein and the UUP are trying to put it back on the agenda," the MP said.
The South Down MP said there was a presumption that nationalists were not as concerned about weapons as unionists. "That is not the case. We are extremely concerned," he said. "The nationalist community has suffered more than any from the violence of the past 25 years. But we have taken a more realistic approach to it and have left it to the independent commission."
The Alliance leader, Mr Sean Neeson, has accused anti-agreement unionists of wanting all the trappings of power in the Assembly but of not being prepared to take political risks for peace.
"Most of the agreement No people are keen to see the transfer of powers to the Assembly but publicly engage in a war of words to prevent progress being made. They want power but are content to see others take the risks and show no gratitude when the rewards are gained."
A Sinn Fein Assembly member, Mr Gerry Kelly, has called on agreement supporters not to be cajoled into making decommissioning a stumbling block to progress. "We are in the midst of a full-blooded campaign by the leaders of unionism to renegotiate or un-pick the Good Friday agreement. Their stance is deliberately aimed at creating a crisis and raising the prospects of the collapse of the agreement," he said.