Reaction to the announcement that a date has been set for elections to the Northern Ireland assembly, and the subsequent rejection by Ulster Unionists.

"I want to appeal to the electorate to use their vote, and to use it wisely in support of a continuing process of change, and peaceful and just future for all our people.

"The last 10 years of peace process, and especially the last five years have been a political and emotional roller-coaster ride for republicans and unionists, for nationalists and loyalists alike. And it's fair to say that we've been through a lot together.

"As republicans we have faced enormous challenges and we've confronted those challenge. And each year in that period, and sometimes more than once each year, we have reached what some have described as another crossroads in our struggle.

"Some years ago I compared all of this to a journey. For us, for Sinn Fein, the destination is an Irish republic. Completing that journey means having a political strategy to get us there."

"The leadership of the IRA welcome today's speech by Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams in which he accurately reflects our position. He also referred to the issue of weapons.

"The IRA leadership is committed to resolving this issue," it added.

"In line with our stated position, we have authorised our representative to meet with the IICD (the international body overseeing disarmament) with a view to proceeding with the implementation of a process to put arms beyond use at the earliest opportunity.

"We have also authorised a further act of putting arms beyond use. This will be verified under the agreed scheme."

"We had made it very clear to republicans and indeed to the governments and to General de Chastelain that what we needed in this situation was a clear, transparent report of major acts of decommissioning of a nature which would have a significant impact on public opinion and demonstrate that we were in a different context.

"Unfortunately we have not had that. We have not had that at all. There may possibly have been those substantial acts of decommissioning, but we have not had the transparency or an adequate report on it.

"Now, under the agreed sequence, the next step would have been a number of statements from myself about our desire to see the administration reformed and our willingness to enter into an administration again.

"Everybody knows about our desire in this respect and everybody knows how hard we have worked over the last number of weeks in order to have a meaningful, meaningful elections to an assembly that would form an administration.

"However, I'm sorry I have to say that in view of the failure of the IICD to create the necessary confidence - indeed, because as a result of what the IICD has done, we probably now have less confidence in the process than we had an hour ago - because of that, I regret that I am not in a position to make those statements.

"We are in effect now putting the sequence on hold."

"We are in a situation where effectively virtually everything is agreed.

"However, there is an issue that has arisen which is to do with the act of decommissioning and the decommissioning process that took place earlier today, where the Unionist party want to have a far greater degree of particularity as to what was actually put beyond use in order to make a judgement that it was indeed a substantial act of decommissioning and also some clarity about the future process in respect of decommissioning.

"Now, I hope and believe that we can find a way through this, but it's going to take us a little time to do that.

"I think all of you looking around this room have been in this process practically as long as I have, some of you, so you realise these things do happen.

"But in the end it's worth spending that extra bit of time in order to get the thing done, because we are very, very close to what I think would be a quite historic day for Northern Ireland so it's worth just taking that extra time and making sure the job gets done, and that's what we're going to do."

"Obviously we would have liked to have completed. We had the sequence that was going very well but there is a difficulty, there is an obstacle.

"We have to try to resolve it if we can and we'll do all we can to deal with that. It's a very obvious position that David Trimble has raised and we now have to see if we can overcome it; the resolution to that isn't so obvious but we have to see if we can find a way and we will."

"You can have a massive decommissioning of firearms and bombs, possibly there will be something like that over the next 24 hours, but for me that is not enough because terrorists can buy new illegal arms tomorrow morning in the United States or in the Balkans - the Balkans is like a sieve at the moment for the supply of illegal armaments.

"And so decommissioning in itself is not enough. And indeed when we say we want decommissioning of 'all' firearms, who knows what 'all' is? We never will know. So it's much better to have words which mean something.

"And now we have Sinn Fein, supported by the IRA - of course, they are the same organisation in truth - saying that the threat of force or the use of force is now out, and that is good news for Northern Ireland, and moderate people throughout the province can build a good strategy on that basis."

"I listened to what David Trimble had to stay at the weekend at our party conference and I am concerned that what he has settled for in this deal may fall short of what we require to rebuild unionists' confidence.

"Let's not forget that the assembly was suspended precisely because the IRA were engaging in illegal terrorist activity.

"Now if the assembly is to be restored and an administration that includes Sinn Fein is to be created, then the IRA are going to have to do...something pretty spectacular to convince Unionist voters to vote for candidates who are going to go back into government with Sinn Fein."

"We need to hear and see from the IRA that their so-called war is finally over, that they're going to end forthwith all paramilitary activity," he added.

"It's not just about one-off acts of decommissioning as we've had in the past, but as they have proven to have fallen short of delivering real and lasting peace and stability for Northern Ireland."

"What we have seen now is a decision by the British government to call these elections.

"That decision, I believe, can trigger a series of words and actions that can be great solace and comfort to people, the fact we are in a situation where those elections can be held in the most positive atmosphere possible."

"Today what you are getting is the pay on account, the overture, the essentially symbolic first gesture.

"I hope that that act of decommissioning is going to be much more open and transparent than the previous two acts were.

"And I'm hoping that General de Chastelain will be able to say much more than he said before about the nature and number of weapons that are decommissioned. That's very important.

"It seems most foolish for the IRA to carry out these acts of decommissioning without getting full credit, because people then actually know how much has been decommissioned.

"But of course there's a whole package of things that need to be resolved - a lot of them were set out in Gerry Adams's speech this morning.

"They involve amnesty for on-the-run terrorists, they involve decommissioning, they involve whole issues of policing, Sinn Fein going on the police board, the devolution of justice and home affairs to Northern Ireland. All of this can only really be negotiated after the elections.

"As we've been saying all along, you've got to have the elections first, you've got to have people with a democratic mandate, which is up to date.

"You've got to know who you're dealing with, what the balance of the parties is. Otherwise, people really won't deal."

"There have been many twists and turns in the complex history of the Northern Ireland peace process.

"What is clear is that the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein had made advances in their willingness to work together - and that is fundamental to future progress.

"But it is disappointing that the process has once again been put on hold."

"Today's events have been hugely frustrating. We are once again facing another delay in moving the process.

"There is a basic problem over trust and transparency, not only with decommissioning but also with the deal that has currently been put on hold.

"In effect, we can't know who's in the right and who's in the wrong if we don't even know what was agreed. This is the problem with deals struck behind closed doors.

"What we need to know is what was actually agreed between David Trimble and Gerry Adams, and what the government intends to do next.

"Both governments need to exert leadership over the process to ensure that this delay is temporary, a matter of hours, instead of weeks or months."

"Republicans must convince unionists that they are committed to peace, to this process and to democracy and that the IRA is finally going out of business, that it is becoming a part of history.

"That is what we are looking for and hoping for."

"The reality is this is not the first time since the agreement that the two governments have taken the approach of concentrating on the problem politics as it were. In fact it has marked the approach since the agreement.

"Our approach and our frustration over recent times has been that governments should be talking to all parties about all of the agreement so that whenever all the pro-agreement parties are in front of the public we can together say with confidence that things are positive and things are going forward and that the agreement's future is assured.

"I don't see how any of the positive things that will be there today would have been prevented by having a more inclusive approach.

"We also have to remember that there are going to be parts of the agreement that will not have been taken care of in today's announcement."

"We will be going into the election confident. We are a strong party, a united party and I think our stance in terms of the policies and in terms of our analysis in the Belfast agreement process has been solid.

"What we will see today is a series of stunts designed to prop up David Trimble, to try and give him a leg up in the process but the reality is that people have seen what has gone on over the past five years and are waiting to give their verdict."

"The announcement of a definite date for the assembly elections is obviously a welcome move. They should never have been cancelled.

"Since then Sinn Fein has campaigned, argued and lobbied relentlessly for an election to allow the people to have their say. Last week I said that I believed that the British government had accepted this logic. Today's announcement confirms this.

"We will now proceed into an election campaign, and it is my belief that the electorate will seize the opportunity of this new dynamic which can see the peace process move forward and the outstanding elements of the Good Friday agreement implemented."

"Now is the time to turn politics around for good. It is good that we are going into the election knowing that people are going to try to make politics work."