The full text of an IRA statement issued in Belfast last night is: "The IRA were persuaded to enter into discussions with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning to help move the situation out of the political vacuum in which it had been stuck for the previous 18 months.
"We did so in good faith and constructively. Our representative met with the IICD on three occasions and as late as last night we were in contact with the IICD.
"Our representative stressed that we are totally committed to the peace process, that the IRA wants a permanent peace, that the declaration and maintenance of the cessation, which is now entering its fifth year, is evidence of that, that the IRA's guns are silent and that there is no threat to the peace process from the IRA."