Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, has urged the Provisional IRA to issue a statement clearly showing it is ending all paramilitary activity and effectively going out of business.
He believed such a statement would be welcomed by his party and the public generally. Mr Trimble confirmed he had seen a draft form of a Provisional IRA statement but hoped it would not be the final product.
The Provisionals had to disarm and end all paramilitary activity, he said. There had been progress in recent days but the republican movement needed to "fast-forward" instead of moving "inch-by-inch". He believed a breakthrough was possible but the Provisional IRA had to act speedily. "There is now only a little time left. I am quite sure if the republican movement wanted to make a statement which would be adequate in terms of what the Government and ourselves could accept, they could do it and do it quite quickly.
"But once we get past Tuesday I think it becomes enormously difficult to make progress. I think by Thursday we are really out of time," he said.
SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan said "clear and unambiguous commitments to end paramilitary activity" were needed from the Provisional IRA and "clear and unequivocal participation" by unionists in the North's political institutions.
"People are fed up with the constant stand-offs, show-downs and spin. They want more progress and not more blame game," he said.
Mr Gerry Adams criticised the British and Irish governments for refusing to publish their blueprint for rejuvenating the North's peace process.
The Sinn Féin president said he had seen the Provisional IRA statement which was "clear and unambiguous". "The two governments have acknowledged that the IRA statement is positive.
"I therefore find it incredible that they have not acted on the basis of this unprecedented intervention. They persist in their refusal to publish their joint declaration." However, if their request for clarification was genuine, then "all obstacles to progress should be removed", he added. Mr Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness met Mr Trimble, at Stormont yesterday.
The Sinn Féin leaders, and Mr Mark Durkan, also met President Bush's special adviser on the North, Mr Richard Haass. Ulster Unionist president, the Rev Martin Smyth, questioned the value of any Provisional IRA statement obtained under duress.
"Given that any statement which does come now will only be because the governments have rejected previous versions and because pressure is again on republicans, how could unionists have confidence in the value of that statement?
"How could unionists have certainty from a statement which was obtained like pulling teeth that the IRA would not once again prove their bad faith a few weeks later?" Mr Smyth believed the Provisional IRA offer must be "fairly pathetic" if even the two governments were not prepared to accept it.
Ulster Unionist Assembly member, Lord Kilclooney, formerly Mr John Taylor, said unionists rightly sought "clarity and certainty" from the Provisional IRA that its war was over.
"If the IRA fail to respond satisfactorily, then the Assembly election should proceed on 29th May and Sinn Féin should be excluded from the next Executive," he said.