The Northern Ireland secretary has singled out the DUP for holding up the restoration of devolution.

Peter Hain told the Guardian newspaper on Tuesday that Rev Ian Paisley's party was the only one of the four major groupings at the Stormont assembly that has not committed to having a power-sharing executive up and running again by the end of the year.

The minister acknowledged that all the parties are facing tough decisions but said it would also be "a leap in the dark" unless agreement is reached by his November 24 deadline.

"It is put up or shut up time for all the political parties," he said ahead of a key visit to the region by Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern this week. "We are coming to the crunch moment.

"There is still a certain amount of scepticism that this deadline is for real, but it is set in statute and set in concrete."

Hain said chancellor Gordon Brown had indicated in a visit to the province last week that the Treasury would look at the possibility of a 'peace dividend' in its upcoming comprehensive spending review if devolution can be restored, making the prize for success attractive to the parties.

However he expressed dismay that the DUP appears to want to continually delay the prospect.

"For some Northern Ireland politicians glimpsing the light at the end of the tunnel is so frightening they want to extend the tunnel," he said.

"There is an opportunity to make it work, but if the DUP in particular and the parties collectively, are unable to agree to share power again, and to get the assembly up and running as a legislature, then they will have brought the curtain down on devolution.

"It is really a question for the DUP as to whether it wants to be seen as the party that brought devolution down or whether it is going to be the party that makes it work.

"All the other parties are agreed, subject to final negotiations, that they want devolved government by November 24 at the latest. The DUP has yet to agree with the other four parties so it is the one standing out on its own at the moment."

Paisley, who leads the largest party at Stormont, has said he will not go into government with republican Sinn Fein while the IRA is still continuing violent and criminal activity.

But Hain rejected the suggestion that the IRA ceasefire was bogus.

"It was absolutely crystal clear when the independent monitoring committee reported in April that paramilitary activity has closed down and decommissioning has happened," he said.

"It is night and day as to what was happening a year ago, let alone five or 10 years ago."