The Sinn Fein president may be conditioning the IRA to stand down, the Ulster Unionist leader has suggested.

David Trimble was reacting to a speech Gerry Adams made at a Sinn Fein party meeting in the Irish Republic on Saturday.

In it he said he could "foresee a future without the IRA" provided politics was made to work.

Mr Trimble said the speech represented a different use of language by republicans and a favourable movement towards the end of paramilitarism.

"The significant thing is that he never said never. We didn't get any echo of the language that came from republicans on decommissioning in 98-99," he said.

Tony Blair called for an end to the IRA

"And you could take from this that part of what he said on Saturday was part of the conditioning of members of the IRA to make them realise, that yes, they are going to go away."

Mr Trimble was speaking after meeting with party MPs and assembly members on Monday to plan strategy and consider a response to Mr Adams' speech.

There has been uncertainty about how the political process will proceed following the suspension of devolution two weeks ago over a row over allegations of IRA activity, including intelligence gathering within the Northern Ireland Office.

Mr Trimble called for total disbandment of the IRA following the allegations and this was echoed Prime Minister Tony Blair when he visited the province after the suspension and called for an end to the IRA.

But at a news conference following his party meeting, Mr Trimble said he also wanted loyalist groups to stand down their paramilitary armies.

Loyalist liaison

"The Agreement does not say explicitly that there must be abolition of private armies but that is clearly the meaning of the Agreement."

Mr Trimble would not be drawn on how he believed the IRA and loyalists should stand down their paramilitary organisations.

But he announced that his personal adviser David McNarry had been appointed to liaise with loyalists and analyse the state of loyalism.

The Ulster Unionist leader said loyalist leaders would have to face up to questions about the existence of their own paramilitary groups.

"If we are in a situation where the threat of violence, actual violence and the existence of private armies has been removed from republicanism, we have to turn around and loyalists have got to be asked; what is the purpose of your existence given that those issues are being resolved?"

Gerry Adams: "IRA will not respond to ultimatums"

SDLP leader Mark Durkan also welcomed Mr Adams' comments.

"The reality is that IRA activity is playing right into the hands of anti-Agreement unionists. And letting the nationalist community badly down," he said.

On Saturday, Gerry Adams told a conference of his party's elected representatives from Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic that the IRA would not disband in response to "ultimatums from the British Government or David Trimble".

However, the West Belfast MP added: "If you asked me do I envisage a future without the IRA?

"The answer is obvious. The answer is yes.

"And who can influence the IRA most? The British Government, the unionists, the Irish Government and us as well, of course.

"All of us have to make politics work. All of us have to strive to bring closure to all those issues in ways which are realistic and achievable.

"All of us have to make peace, to build justice."