Loyalist disarmament could be even more difficult to achieve than IRA decommissioning, Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble predicted today.
Mr Trimble, who has urged the party to back him ahead of a crucial meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council on Saturday, accused his critics of focusing solely on republicans.
"I hope everybody wants to see the Agreement fully implemented and of course full implementation of the Agreement does mean the total disarmament of paramilitary organisations," he said.
"I do wish that those who continually talk about republican paramilitaries also realise that we have just as big if not a bigger problem in getting loyalist paramilitaries to decommission."
The Northern Ireland First Minister has written a letter to all 860 delegates of the ruling council calling on them to trust him on disarmament.
He is attempting to prevent hardliners in the party tying his hands by committing him to issuing a February deadline for total disarmament.
Mr Trimble argued that his policy of putting pressure on republicans has paid dividends, with the IRA putting some of its weapons beyond use last month.
He assured them he would stick to the aim of bringing about total decommissioning and would deliver a progress report to the Ulster Unionist Council next March.
Proposing the pro-Agreement parties take up a suggestion from the SDLP that they have roundtable talks to set a new target date for the full implementation of the Agreement - including decommissioning, he said: "We haven't got a time frame for decommissioning and we need one."
But anti-Agreement members of the party are expected to table a motion calling on the party leadership to issue sanctions against Sinn Féin if the IRA fails to disarm by February, when the remit of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning runs out.
Hardliners are expected to call for Mr Trimble and his ministers to withdraw from the Stormont Executive if decommissioning is not completed and Sinn Féin aren't excluded from government.
Young Unionist Dr Philip Weir, a critic of the Agreement, said delegates would be disappointed that Mr Trimble has made no commitment to move before the party's AGM in March.
"They will not take it well, the suggestion that rather than the Ulster Unionist Party decide on Saturday when they would like to see the time frame for complete disarmament, Mr Trimble is happy to see it left to the SDLP and Sinn Féin," he said.
PA