Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble has insisted that a majority of unionists still support the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
In a speech to the Church of Scotland in Inverness, Mr Trimble said opinion polls show 60% of Protestants in the North wanted the agreement to succeed.
He claimed this figure would rise to 75% if the IRA decommissioned and disbanded.
The UUP leader said unionists had nothing to fear from the IRA, but he warned that they would no longer tolerate "republican duplicity".