UUP hint at Stormont boycott threat

A senior Ulster Unionist has hinted his party will boycott the Stormont Assembly if it is unhappy with the British government’s declaration on paramilitary violence and the IRA ceasefire.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to make a statement on the future of the peace process before the British government's summer recess on July 24.

UUP assemblyman Fred Cobain claimed there will be no Assembly elections next year unless the IRA fulfils its ceasefire commitments.

Mr Blair promised to make a statement on paramilitary violence at recent peace process talks in Hillsborough, Co Down.

The North’s First Minister, David Trimble, also leader of the UUP, had demanded that the British government set out an objective definition of the IRA’s ceasefire.

He criticised the current situation whereby Northern Secretary John Reid decides whether paramilitary groups have breached their ceasefires.

Sinn Fein, for its part, has insisted that the IRA has met all of its commitments under the Good Friday Agreement and said the looming crisis in the peace process has more to do with internal problems within unionism than any threat of violence from republicans.