Sinn FΘin has denied comments by its president that nationalist recruits to the new police service would be "accorded the same treatment as the RUC" had implied a threat.
The comments were made on Friday by Mr Gerry Adams. A spokesman yesterday said they had been deliberately misinterpreted by some people to mean the new recruits would be legitimate targets for republicans.
"This is complete nonsense. There was no veiled threat. All we said was the RUC is regarded by most nationalists as a discredited force. What is on the table on policing at the moment is just a repackaged RUC that republicans do not feel they could give their allegiance to. What we want is a new beginning to policing." He did not even believe nationalist recruits would be ostracised by their own community. Comments comparing Sinn FΘin's boycott of the new service to loyalist pickets of Catholic schoolchildren in the Ardoyne were also " missing the point".
Over 300 RUC officers have died as a result of republican paramilitary attacks in the past 30 years.