The carefully choreographed sequence of events designed to lead to the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly has been thrown in chaos after the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Mr David Trimble said today's act of decommissioning from the IRA was not transparent enough.
Speaking at a press conference in Belfast this evening Mr Trimble said that as a result of this perceived of lack of clarity he would not be releasing a statement on moving the peace process forward as had been planned.
He said he had called an emergency meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council on Wednesday week to discuss the crisis which, he said, had created mistrust amongst unionists.
"I'm sorry I have to say that because of the result of what the IICD (International Independent Commission on Decommissioning) has done we probably now have less confidence in the process than we had an hour ago."
He laid the blame for breakdown of the sequence at the feet of Republicans who, he said, had "foolishly imposed obligations of confidentially on the IICD".
"We had made it very clear to republicans, to the governments and to General John de Chastelain that what we need in this situation was a clear transparent report of major acts of decommissioning of a nature which would have asignificant impact on public opinion and demonstrate we were in a different context," Mr Trimble said.
"Unfortunately we have not had that."
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Mr Trimble said that as a result he had been forced to put "on hold" the sequence of events which were to lead to elections in Northern Ireland in November.
Ahead of Mr Trimble's press conference, General John de Chastelain confirmed that the IRA had carried out a third and substantial act of decommissioning.
In a press conference, Gen de Chastelain said: "The commission has witnessed a third event in which IRA weapons have been put beyond use, in accordance with government schemes and regulations."
Gen de Chastelain said the decommissioning was "considerably larger" than previous disarmaments.
It was not enough, however, to convince elements within the UUP.
Mr Trimble said he had convened an emergency meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council for next Wednesday to discuss today's developments which he said would give Republicans eight days "to repair the damage that has been done to the process this afternoon."
He expressed his hope that the "opportunity is taken and I hope we will be able to resume the sequence which has now been put on hold."
At a joint press conference this evening, the Taoiseach Mr Ahern and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair said they would continue working tonight in an effort to resolve the current "glitch" in the peace process.
The Taoiseach said there was a difficulty, "an obstacle and we have to try and resolve it if we can and we will do all we can to deal with it."
On his way into Hillsborough ahead of crisis talks this evening, Sinn Fein's Mr Gerry Adams said he did not know how a resolutioncould be found.
"I do not know how a report prepared by a Commission which was set up by the governments can be changed, corrected, nuanced or operated upon to suit the needs of any particular party at this time.
"I do not know how when one party unilaterally moves to suspend the sequence, how this can be put back together again in the short term."
Earlier this evening there had been reports of dissent within the UUP camp about the General's de Chastelain's report.
"This isn't going down well at all," one party source said.
"People are apoplectic. They don't understand how David Trimble could have signed up to a deal which has so little transparency on decommissioning.
"There really wasn't any detail from General de Chastelain. I think there are very real problems in this process right now."
