Bomb found near police station in Belfast

Irish authorities say a bomb found near a police station in northern Belfast was apparently intended to target officers.

Nearly 50 families were evacuated from their homes and businesses were forced to close following a dissident republican threat.

Chief Superintendent Mark Hamilton that police had received several calls overnight warning of a bomb, including one call suggesting that the bomb had become unstable.

"I can confirm there is an anti-personnel bomb ... which was a viable device and which was designed to kill people in the area."

An area near a video-rental shop where the bomb was planted was sealed off and bomb-disposal units called in to defuse the device in one of the province capital's busiest thoroughfares.

"The police have said that the intended target for this device was police officers," Brian Rea, the acting chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, told Reuters.

The republican dissidents are opposed to the Irish Republican Army's backing for Northern Ireland's peace process, and have kept up a campaign of violence.

- AP, NZHERALD STAFF