UUP ministers to resign before next Wednesday

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has announced that his ministers will resign from the Northern Assembly by next Wednesday in protest against the IRA’s delay in decommissioning its weapons.

The UUP ministers withdrew from the Assembly on Monday after a unionist motion to have Sinn Fein expelled from government failed.

Mr Trimble told the British Conservative Party conference that the ministers will resign within a week in an attempt to force the British Government to suspend the North’s political institutions and call a review of the Good Friday Agreement.

During his speech this morning, Mr Trimble said his party has waited 17 months for the IRA to honour its pledge to put weapons beyond use.

However, the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning said in July that the IRA had proposed a "satisfactory" method for disposing of arms. Mr Trimble rejected this move as "not good enough".

Sinn Fein insists that the Good Friday Agreement placed the responsibility of making judgements on the IRA’s credibility with the IICD, not the Ulster Unionists.

The IICD has repeatedly stated its assertion that the IRA does intend to disarm.

Referring to decommissioning, Mr Trimble said today: "If they are ever going to do it, it must be now. If they do, fine, then the new institutions will bed down.

"If they do not, it will be clear we must change the institutions so they can survive Sinn Fein’s failure. There may be reluctance to make those changes but the need will be inescapable."