IRA withdraws disarmament offer

UPDATE - Northern Ireland's tortuous peace process was dealt a fresh blow today when the Irish Republican Army (IRA) withdrew an offer to scrap the arsenal which sustained its 30-year campaign against British rule.

The outlawed group, which killed about 1,800 people during its three-decade "armed struggle", did not threaten a return to violence, but its harshly worded statement underlines the political deadlock gripping the bitterly divided province.

The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland said the refusal of the IRA to disarm and end paramilitary activities was the only obstacle preventing the revival of a power-sharing government set up under the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

"We reject this," the IRA said in a statement to be published on Thursday in the Dublin-based Republican newspaper An Phoblacht.

"We do not intend to remain quiescent within this unacceptable and unstable situation. It has tried our patience to the limit."

It said it was taking a conditional offer to disarm -- made during failed negotiations last year -- off the table.

The IRA -- which draws its support from Northern Ireland's Catholic minority -- has made similar moves in the past in response to crises in the peace process, and its statement did not appear to put its 1997 ceasefire in imminent danger.

The Good Friday accord has largely ended the political and sectarian violence between majority Protestants and minority Catholics which cost 3,600 lives during Northern Ireland's so-called "Troubles", but failed to provide political stability.

In December an Anglo-Irish push to restore power sharing in the province stalled over the issue of IRA weapons.

The guerrilla group had said it was willing to disarm as part of an overall deal.

But it rejected a demand from Protestant unionists, so called because they support Northern Ireland's political union with Britain, for photographs to be taken of its weapons being destroyed, saying this would be an unacceptable "humiliation".

Later that month a gang stole £26.5 ($70.89) million in an audacious raid on the vaults of Northern Bank in Belfast, and last month police said they believed the IRA was to blame -- an assessment supported by London and Dublin.

The IRA has denied it was involved, and in Wednesday night's statement responded to the wave of criticism heaped upon it and its political ally Sinn Fein over the raid by saying it was taking the offer to disarm off the table.

"The IRA has demonstrated our commitment to the peace process again and again -- we want it to succeed," said the statement, signed P O'Neill, the name traditionally used in communiques from the leadership of the outlawed group.

"But peace cannot be built on ultimatums, false and malicious accusations or bad faith."

The British government said it was not surprised by the move, but the impasse is a blow to Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has invested huge time in the Northern Ireland peace process and is expected to call a General Election in May.

"The fact remains that it was the IRA that did carry out the Northern Bank robbery," said a spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office.

"And, as the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach (Irish prime minister Bertie Ahern) said yesterday, therefore it is the IRA that is the sole obstacle to moving forward. "

Sinn Fein, the province's largest Catholic party, has backed the IRA denial of involvement in the Northern Bank raid, and says the allegations are a politically motivated smear.

"The IRA statement is obviously a direct consequence of the retrograde stance of the two governments," said Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams. "It is evidence of a deepening crisis and I regret that very much."

Unionists say they will not sit in government with Sinn Fein until the IRA is disbanded. A Protestant/Catholic coalition involving Sinn Fein collapsed in 2002 amid rows over alleged IRA activities, prompting a return to direct rule from London.

- REUTERS