Fresh demands on IRA to disarm amid security scaledown
Unionists still in shock at the speed of the demilitarisation process urged British Prime Minister Tony Blair to lean on the Provisionals.
Decommissioning chief General John de Chastelain, who has had fresh talks with an IRA representative, has returned home to Canada - dimming hopes of an imminent weapons destruction.
Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said: "What are the IRA waiting for?
"What are they ashamed of? What have they got to hide?"
His anger rose as soldiers began tearing down a military watchtower despised by republicans in west Belfast.
The Divis Tower observation post has been used by the British Army since the 1970s to scan the streets of Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams's constituency.
Mr Adams said the removal would be a relief for residents in his constituency forced to endure the military presence.
The west Belfast MP mischievously added that it could be rebuilt at the church in the east of the city where Mr Paisley, the Democratic Unionist Party leader opposed to the demilitarisation and disbandment of Royal Irish Regiment battalions, preaches regularly.
He said: "If Ian Paisley wants it to be transferred to the tower of the Free Presbyterian church, to the tower of the Martyrs' Memorial church, that's a matter for him."
But he refused to offer any new insight into the IRA's plans to honour a pledge to ditch its guns as part of ending its armed struggle.
"The IRA has made its commitments on that. It's between the IRA and the IICD (Independent International Commission on Decommissioning)."
Demolition work has already started at a number of army posts in south Armagh and Derry as part of the dramatic changes to the North's security landscape. Washington joined the clamour for the Provos to back up their historic statement with deeds.
On his first official visit to the North, the new US Ambassador to Britain, Robert Holmes Tuttle said: "It is a great step forward and I am really proud of everything that has been done but now we have got to see the actions."
In another move, the British government announced the current Northern Ireland Policing Board membership would be extended for another year in an attempt to stave off instability.
Yet for Mr Donaldson, the government's number one priority should be pressing the IRA into disarming.
"It shouldn't be down to unionist politicians," Mr Donaldson stressed. "Where is the prime minister on all this?
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