The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, has called on The Irish Times to support its report in yesterday's newspaper that preliminary drafts of the report of the Independent Commission on the RUC recommend that the force effectively be disbanded. Mr Trimble said he was deeply concerned by the "alarmist nature" of the Irish Times report. He met the commission's chairman, the former Hong Kong governor, Mr Chris Patten, yesterday to discuss the issue.
Mr Patten described the Irish Times report as a piece of fiction and said no preliminary report by the commission existed. Mr Trimble said he accepted Mr Patten's word, but he would not exclude the possibility that other documents containing the suggestions were in circulation.
If that were the case it would have to be established who had written these documents and if they were genuine. Mr Trimble said that since The Irish Times had reported the matter with such prominence, the newspaper now had a duty to support its claims.
The Ulster Unionist security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, said suggestions that the RUC might be disbanded had placed all sides seeking to implement the Belfast Agreement under unbearable strain. He said the commission would have to be stood down if there was any truth in the report. "It would be completely unacceptable that conclusions had been reached at a time when the commission is just embarking on a further phase of an extended consultation process.
"Any such proposal, which would fly in the face of common sense and Tony Blair's assurances, would not only undermine the confidence of both the RUC and ordinary members of Northern Ireland society but would be yet another capitulation to terrorism."
The DUP's security spokesman, Mr Gregory Campbell, said the law-abiding community in the North needed to be reassured that the RUC's future was secure and no succour would be given to "those who have spent 30 years undermining and attacking the force".
Mr William Smith of the Progressive Unionist Party said the Irish Times report was "a piece of mischievous journalism" which created fears that were unfounded. The SDLP assemblyman, Mr Alex Attwood, said he did not believe any preliminary report existed. He refused to "speculate further on speculation".
Mr Chris Patten said that, even though he had told The Irish Times on Tuesday that there was no truth in the suggestions, and the report was "a total fabrication", the newspaper had gone ahead and published the claims.
"We are nowhere near considering preliminary drafts of any report," he said. "There has been no drafting of preliminary reports going on because we are still taking evidence. The report in The Irish Times is a piece of fiction."
Mr Patten said that the commission was still holding public meetings to hear the community's views on the future of policing. One will take place in Crossmaglen, Co Armagh, tonight.
"We have not started forming conclusions. We have not started shaping our opinions or shaping the outline of this report. We are not going round holding 30-odd meetings in the next few weeks as a sort of pre-Christmas pantomime. If we had a report in the cupboard we would not be going through this exercise," Mr Patten said.
It is a genuine exercise in consultation. We won't be forming conclusions until we have heard from everybody, and that won't be for some weeks to come." The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, urged people to listen to Mr Patten.
"He has made it absolutely clear there isn't a preliminary report. How could there be when he is still talking to groups?" she said.