Anti-agreement unionists have described the Hillsborough declaration as an "April Fool's joke" and a "classic case of a fudge".
The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the Rev Ian Paisley, called the draft document an "April Fool's charter".
"Instead of dealing with substantial, credible, verifiable decommissioning, we are offered `demilitarisation'. And we are supposed to remember all victims now! We are to salute those who went out to bomb the security forces!
"What about the widows whose husbands were slaughtered by terrorists? What about their feelings? This is an insult."
Dr Paisley dismissed the declaration as a "mere move on the IRA's language".
He went on: "There is nothing in this document that says IRA arms are illegal or have to be handed over. How are they going to be compelled to keep their so-called obligation to hand over any weapons?" he asked.
Dr Paisley's party colleague, Mr Nigel Dodds, an Assembly member for North Belfast, said there had been no agreement.
"This is a classic case of the spin-doctors coming into their own. They have dressed up what has been total failure to reach any agreement into some sort of a milestone. The reality is that Mr Blair and Mr Ahern have come here and have failed."
According to Mr Dodds, the pause for reflection over Easter was designed to "buy more time to hammer a few more heads together".
He added: "People might be bedazzled by some of the fancy semantics and spin-doctoring. In reality, it is a retreat on the part of David Trimble. There will be, in effect, a shadow executive now, which Mr Trimble said he would not accept without prior decommissioning. "There is no programme for continuing decommissioning. Instead, they (the IRA) are going to put the arms `beyond use' - whatever that means. Any unionist who has demanded an up-front act of decommissioning before they would contemplate a shadow executive could never run with this declaration," Mr Dodds said.
"What this week and all previous weeks and months have been about was to get Sinn Fein into the government of Northern Ireland. Mr Trimble is prepared to put them into government within hours of an agreement. The two prime ministers will not proceed unless Sinn Fein are signed up. I think it is time to stop pandering to the likes of Sinn Fein, who have received concession after concession," he said.
Mr Dodds said he was particularly outraged that terrorists would be "elevated" to the same level as the security forces. "This day of reconciliation will equate the victims of terrorists with the terrorists themselves. This is an insult to our security forces. In fact, the only organisation under threat of being dismantled is the RUC, who have stood between us and destruction over the past 30 years," he concluded. Mr Peter King, a spokesman for the anti-agreement group, Union First, described the declaration as a "clear fudge on the decommissioning issue which should be unacceptable to all true democrats in Northern Ireland".
He added: "It establishes in all but name the shadow executive, thus dropping any requirement for prior decommissioning. Put ting `some arms beyond use' means getting rid of two rusty guns would qualify as an `act of reconciliation' ", Mr King claimed in a statement.
"We urge all unionists, but particularly the Ulster Unionist Assembly members, to reject this pernicious plan and prevent the IRA running our government."
Mr Frazer Agnew, an Assembly member for North Belfast representing the United Unionist Party, said the declaration was "totally unacceptable to the vast majority of unionists in Northern Ireland. There will be no prior decommissioning, but the RUC will be disarmed within 12 months while armed terrorists will be sitting in government."