Unionists are pressuring the British and Irish governments to restore the Northern Ireland assembly without Sinn Fein after the IRA last night withdrew its promise to decommission its remaining weapons.

In a statement, the IRA accused the two governments of backing down on their promises, and said its weapons offer was no longer on the table.

The IRA said that it was acting in retaliation, after Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern, the Irish Taoiseach, both accused the IRA of committing the £26.5 million Northern Bank robbery in December. The IRA has denied carried out the enormous heist.

Today unionists tried to capitalise on the disarray in Republican circles. Michael McGimpsey, a senior Ulster Unionist, called on both administrations to make progress in restoring home rule - without Republicans.

"It is now eight years since Republicans agreed to commit to exclusively peaceful and democratic means. The people of Northern Ireland are still waiting for them to do so," he said.

"The IRA are attempting to throw down the gauntlet to both governments with this statement. It is a crude, thinly veiled threat. It is now up to those who support the democratic process, including the Prime Minister and Taoiseach, to stand shoulder to shoulder and face this threat down."

Ian Paisley, the DUP leader, said that he believed the IRA statement would be treated with contempt. "Not for the first time, the IRA has withdrawn its co-operation on decommissioning. This will be another attempt to bargain with the Government in order to take the pressure off them," he said.

"The Northern Bank heist confirmed that the IRA never put an offer on the table that they intended to keep. The IRA had never any intention of decommissioning in a credible, transparent and verifiable way. They never had any intention of giving up their criminal empire. That is why they walked away from the table last year."

David Trimble, Ulster Unionist leader, said the Republican movement had been given the opportunity to participate in the democratic process but had "very clearly and conspicuously failed to meet the challenge".

He held talks with Mr Blair and Paul Murphy, the Northern Ireland Secretary, this afternoon: "The Prime Minister is clearly saying to us we are now in a different situation to where we were before."

The emphasis should now be on rebuilding the moderate centre ground in Northern Ireland politics, Mr Trimble said.

Alasdair McDonnell, deputy leader of the moderate Republican party the SDLP, said that the peace process could not be held hostage to the intransigence of either the IRA or the DUP.

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