Peace process - All sides must make final push

In a strong appeal to the republican movement yesterday, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern insisted that a core element of the Good Friday Agreement is the transition to peaceful and democratic means. He emphasised that people are entitled to know the intentions of their prospective partners in the process.

Put simply, unionists are entitled to an assurance that the Provisional IRA is committed irrevocably to the democratic process, but he also made it clear that republicans are entitled to know that unionists will implement what was agreed without the kind of reservations that have frustrated the work of the Agreement's institutions over the past five years.

Sinn Féin leaders committed themselves to use all their influence to persuade the Provisional IRA to decommission their weapons. This inevitably involved a transitional period in which trust had to be built up.