'IRA no longer a threat to peace'

The Irish Republican Army's ruling Army Council is no longer operational and the guerilla group does not pose a threat to peace in Northern Ireland, an independent watchdog said yesterday.

The IRA was responsible for more than half of the 3,600 sectarian killings in the British-ruled province during three decades of violence that largely ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. "Now that that campaign is well and truly over, the Army Council by deliberate choice is no longer operational or functional," the Independent Monitoring Commission said.

"We do not believe that it (the IRA) presents a threat to peace or to democratic politics," Northern Ireland's official arms watchdog said in a report.

The IRA pledged in 2005 to disarm and pursue its goal of a united Ireland through peaceful means, but its continued existence has remained a concern among unionists who favour British sovereignty in Northern Ireland.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown welcomed the report, calling it a significant day for Northern Ireland.

"I believe that this will provide reassurance and hope for everybody who wants to see this chapter of Northern Ireland's history closed," he said in a statement on British television.

A pact last year by political foes in Northern Ireland to share power in a regional government cemented the 1998 peace deal. But tensions have grown between the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and its nationalist partner Sinn Fein.

There have been fears that IRA ally Sinn Fein could quit the executive unless it secures a timetable for the transfer of policing and justice powers from London to Belfast.

In contrast the DUP is in no hurry to see a locally controlled police force, given attacks by splinter guerilla groups, which include dissident republicans.

Mr Brown said it was time for all political parties to work together to complete the final stages of the peace process.

"In the next few days, I will use all my efforts, working with the parties in Northern Ireland, to make sure that the devolution of policing and justice can move ahead," he said.

DUP leader Peter Robinson, speaking on Tuesday before the release of the report, said he accepted Northern Ireland police chief Hugh Orde's assessment that the Army Council was not "meeting for any terrorist purpose", but he still wanted all IRA structures removed.

"There is no purpose for having a structure if you do not intend to operate in a paramilitary fashion," said Mr Robinson, who is also Northern Ireland's first minister.

Sinn Fein and the DUP have avoided meetings in recent weeks and Mr Robinson has warned of serious consequences if the executive does not convene later this month for its first post summer session.