Potentially damaging divisions over republican weapons have opened up between the Independent Monitoring Commission and Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body after the IMC yesterday published its latest report on IRA activity, write Gerry Moriarty & Dan Keenan.
The IMC reported that while the organisation had decided to pursue a political course and "eschew terrorism" some IRA members were still engaged in criminality.
It also reported that intelligence gathering, authorised by the leadership, was continuing.
But most controversially the four IMC members said they had received "credible" reports that "not all PIRA's weapons and ammunition were handed over for decommissioning in September".
A report from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) was released around the same time yesterday contradicting the IMC's suggestion that the IRA was holding on to handguns and other weapons.
The IRA in a statement signed by P O'Neill also insisted it was living up to its commitments.
It claimed: "Recent allegations that the IRA is in breach of its public commitments are false. The IRA has honoured all commitments made on the 28th July 2005."
The IICD said "security sources in Northern Ireland" informed it last month of intelligence that the IRA had retained weapons. These sources most likely would be the PSNI and MI5.
The decommissioning body then double-checked with the Garda which said its "reliable sources" could produce no intelligence supporting this concern.
In a later meeting an IRA representative told the IICD no arms "had been retained or placed in long-term hides".
The decommissioning body concluded "that in the absence of evidence to the contrary our 26 September assessment regarding IRA arms remains correct".
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair had been looking to the IMC report in April to inject impetus to the process but the confusions and complications caused yesterday could put back the prospect of political movement to the autumn or later.
While the IRA could in the months ahead detach itself from criminality and spying, it is virtually certain to reject any further calls for decommissioning, particularly when the IMC, the IICD and the security services on both sides of the Border are in dispute over whether the IRA has held on to weapons.
The IMC was positive about the IRA's overall strategic intentions. "We are of the firm view that the present PIRA leadership has taken the strategic decision to end the armed campaign and pursue the political course which it has publicly articulated," the IMC said.
Dublin and London focused on such positive elements but DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley made it clear that in the short term there was little prospect of his party opening up power-sharing negotiating with Sinn Féin.
The IMC report vindicated his view that IRA disarmament was "nothing but a charade", he said.
This will feature at the DUP annual conference in Belfast where delegates are likely to impress on the party leadership to have no dealings with Sinn Féin. Neither does the fallout augur well for the multi-party trilateral talks at Hillsborough on Monday.
Sinn Féin chief's negotiatior Martin McGuinness challenged the IMC to prove its suspicions and said the suggestion the IRA had held on to arms was "bullshit of the highest order".
Northern Secretary Peter Hain said it was a "positive report that shows the IRA is moving in the right direction: no murders, no recruitment, no bank robberies. . . Of course, the report does not paint a picture of perfection and frankly I did not expect it to. "