New Northern Secretary Peter Hain has said the IRA must make it "absolutely crystal clear" that it is giving up paramilitarism and criminality if there is to be a chance of a comprehensive political deal in Northern Ireland.
Mr Hain said such a republican response was absolutely essential in the wake of the latest report from the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) that shows the IRA and all paramilitary organisations are still engaged in violence and criminality.
"We now await to see will the IRA, after Gerry Adams's call last month, go out of business in terms of paramilitary activity and criminality. That must be absolutely crystal clear," he told The Irish Times.
Mr Hain said in respect of the IMC blaming the UDA for two murders and other activity since September last year, he was reviewing whether the loyalist organisation should once again be proscribed.
He said he was also considering the IMC's recommendation that the Progressive Unionist Party, which is linked to the UVF, should continue to suffer financial penalties - so far costing the party £120,000 - because it had not done enough to persuade the loyalist paramilitary group to end violence and criminality.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey dismissed the IMC report as a "tool of the British securocrats" which was set up at the behest of unionists. "It was created and has been used to discriminate against Sinn Féin and our electorate," he said. "It, like previous reports, has little or no credibility and is neither impartial, fair nor balanced, he added.
The DUP MP for North Belfast, Nigel Dodds, said the report highlighted a "frightening level of illegal activity engaged in by all forms of terrorist organisations in Northern Ireland".
"This report is a damning indictment of the IRA's continued involvement in terrorist, paramilitary and criminal activity. All of this activity was being pursued during a period when we were told that republicans were preparing to sign up for a new deal. It is no wonder Sinn Féin/IRA were unable to commit to the terms of the deal," he added.
SDLP justice spokesman Alban Maginness said the report illustrated the danger of a "growing Sopranos culture" among all paramilitaries. "All paramilitaries now have the chance to wind up. Gerry Adams says that he wants the IRA to end all activity. He - and they - need to know that it really has to be all activity. IRA involvement in organised crime has to end completely."
Senior Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey said British prime minister Tony Blair must "end the veto republicans have over political progress in Northern Ireland".
He urged Mr Blair to end the appeasement process, restore the institutions and leave Sinn Féin in the cold.
Alliance leader David Ford said the report confirmed there was "no real change in the behaviour of either republicans or loyalists".
