Unionists have reacted with anger and alarm to suggestions that some form of IRA decommissioning could be linked to demilitarisation, while a senior Sinn Fein figure has said that all ideas aimed at breaking the political deadlock should be considered.
While Sinn Fein has argued that demilitarisation is a "stand alone" issue and must go ahead because it is part of the Belfast Agreement, the party chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, did not rule out a connection between arms and British troop levels.
Reports have suggested that just before the suspension of the political institutions the IRA indicated to Gen de Chastelain's decommissioning body that it could put its weapons beyond use if there was a timetable and commitment to scaling down the military presence in the North.
Mr McLaughlin, responding to the speculation, said yesterday that all proposals should be considered. "If people are now looking for ways in which we can back out of this cul-de-sac I think it is incumbent on all of us to look at these ideas. They may not work, but let's have a look at them," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
Sinn Fein is to hold a special conference in Dublin on Sunday to discuss the political crisis. It was originally planned to deal with building up Sinn Fein's electoral strength North and the South but the crisis has overtaken that agenda.
However, a Sinn Fein attempt to arrange a meeting of all the pro-Belfast Agreement parties for today to discuss the crisis has met with a cool response from the UUP and SDLP. A UUP source said the party, in principle, favoured the idea of round-table discussions but felt it would serve little purpose at this stage when the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, was in the US, and when Sinn Fein was about to hold a major conference to plan its next move.
An SDLP source said such a meeting would be inappropriate at present. "I think, initially at least, the best thing to do would be for the parties to start holding bilateral meetings," he said. It was time for the British and Irish governments to be driving such initiatives, he added.
Sinn Fein members, including Mr Gerry Kelly and the former IRA commander in the Maze prison, Mr Brendan McFarlane, met about 60 IRA prisoners yesterday to brief them on the present situation, and to hear their views.
The prisoners still supported the Sinn Fein "peace strategy" but were angry at the suspension of the institutions, Mr Kelly said.
Referring to the reports suggesting a decommissioning-disarmament linkage the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said it would be "disastrous" to contemplate reducing the security presence in the North.
"The idea that the army and the forces of law and order would be placed on the same scales as the terrorists and their murder weapons is unacceptable to the DUP. Also, the oft-cited number of legally held guns belonging to the farmers and sportsmen cannot be traded for republican decommissioning."
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, accused the British government of adopting a "grovelling submissiveness" to republicanism. "If the government concedes demilitarisation the Provos will replace it with another item from their shopping list," he added.
The Ulster Unionist MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson said it would be "extremely foolish" if decommissioning were bartered against demilitarisation. "The government must not allow the army and the forces of law and order to be placed on the same scales as, and to be weighed against, the illegal arsenal of terrorist organisations," he added.
The former UUP leader, Lord Molyneaux, also warned against any linkage between guns and the British army presence. It would be irresponsible, he said, to take such an initiative based on "what it termed `normalisation of security' when normality is no longer on the agenda".
