Crisis for N. Irish peace process

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has warned the IRA must surrender its arms

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- The Northern Ireland peace process is facing possible collapse amid a growing row over IRA arms decommissioning.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has warned his party will withdraw from Northern Ireland's power-sharing government if the Irish Republican Army does not begin scrapping its weapons by Thursday.

An Anglo-Irish proposal contained in The Way Forward document aimed at rescuing the peace process has so far failed to win the backing of the three main parties supporting the process.

The power-sharing government in Belfast, the cornerstone of a 1998 accord designed to end 30 years of sectarian conflict, is set to collapse at midnight Saturday if no agreement is reached.

Britain's Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid has until the Saturday deadline to decide whether to suspend power-sharing institutions, or call fresh elections.

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Both republicans and nationalists have blamed each other for the dispute.

Gerry Adams, president of the IRA's political ally Sinn Fein, told a news conference on Wednesday: "I don't think any of us should underestimate the intensity of the crisis which is opening up.

"The reality is that the institutions are going to collapse in a very short time, given the management of the process at this point."

He said Trimble's threat for his party to pull out of the government was "an historic mistake".

Adams added that his party still had problems with the Anglo-Irish proposals contained in The Way Forward document, but hoped solutions could be found.

A statement by the IRA was said to be "imminent."

But there seemed to be no prospect of the IRA moving quickly to neutralise its weapons, and CNN's Matthew Chance said it was increasingly hard to see if there could be any progress by the Saturday midnight deadline.

Trimble said The Way Forward document was not in itself enough to persuade unionists to support the proposals to break the deadlock.

"It was only if that package succeeded in providing movement from the republicans that the situation would arise.

"We have seen a step by republicans, but of course it falls far short of what we need which is to see decommissioning actually begin."

He said it was not too late for the IRA to make a move on scrapping weapons.

"We now have no alternative but to say to the republican movement that it's time you did the business. It was time you did it a long time ago," he said.

Officials from London and Dublin have been busily discussing the range of options available if The Way Forward package is not accepted.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid faces a difficult decision

Although UK government sources say they have no preferred option, it is likely the Northern Ireland Assembly will be suspended for a second time in advance of a fresh attempt to get the process back on the rails again later this year.

There has been speculation that Dr. Reid may recall the assembly for one day, triggering a mechanism that will buy the process a further six weeks to resolve the issue, but this was being played down by officials.

The Good Friday pact initially called for total paramilitary disarmament by mid-2000 but that deadline was extended to June 2001.

The Independent International Commission on Decommissioning was set up in 1997 to oversee the disarmament proposal, but has been largely reduced to checking that stockpiles of ammunition have not been moved or used.