Northern Ireland's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, is today expected to urge the US President, Mr Bill Clinton, to use his influence to persuade republicans to start decommissioning before the crucial Ulster Unionist Council meeting in February.
Mr Trimble, who left for the US at the weekend to carry out a number of private engagements, is meeting Mr Clinton in Washington for half an hour this morning. A spokesman for the First Minister confirmed decommissioning would be high on Mr Trimble's agenda.
At the Ulster Unionist Council meeting last month, Mr Trimble pledged to resign if there was not movement on the decommissioning issue by the council's next meeting in February.
Speaking before his departure, Mr Trimble warned hardline unionists that they would ultimately be left behind if they felt unable to adjust to the new political realities.
"Those elements who are only concerned with shouting slogans and who don't want anything to happen because it could mean they have to change their slogans will be marginalised.
"Those who fear this is a slippery slope to some nasty destination will discover that it is not, that things are much better for all of us in a relationship where we can work together and make institutions in Northern Ireland work," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
The Belfast Agreement had laid the foundations for tackling Northern Ireland's main problems and creating the stability everybody was longing for, Mr Trimble said. "We are on the other side of the slope and whatever difficulties there may be, I think we can overcome them." The Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, said he was confident republicans would put their arms beyond use. "There will be decommissioning. I do not know how it will happen or the shape or form - that is something for Gen de Chastelain.
"But I believe that it is now absolutely imperative that it happens and happens in such a way that, rather than peel off the things we have created, we can consolidate them and add to them if necessary," Mr Mallon said in the joint interview.
If the newly created institutions failed, both the national and international communities would point the finger at Sinn Fein and the IRA for not honouring their obligations under the Mitchell review, Mr Mallon added.
"That is a remarkable accusation to be faced with by all of the people of Ireland, by nationalists, by unionists, by world opinion. For that reason, I think there will be decommissioning," he said.
Mr Trimble said he and Mr Mallon had a good working relationship. "That doesn't mean that everything is going to be easy. But we have a working relationship that has been tested and tried through the talks and since the talks and through the implementation. Of course, it would be foolish to say that there won't be any problems."
People needed to be given the opportunity to change, Mr Trimble said in reference to Mr Martin McGuinness's appointment as Education Minister.