IMC must be scrapped: McGuinness

SINN FÉIN'S chief negotiator Martin McGuinness last night issued a blunt warning that the push for power-sharing in the North would "run aground" unless the official paramilitary watchdog was scrapped.

He told the party's Árd Fheis in Dublin that the latest report of the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) contained "allegation, fantasy and fiction presented as fact".

The IMC was set up by the London and Dublin governments to assess paramilitary activity. It provoked controversy last month with claims the IRA has not fully disarmed.