Huge bomb found in Armagh

It is now known that the bomb found by the RUC on the main road leading from Armagh to Monaghan contained a thousand pounds of homemade explosives.

Dissident republicans are being blamed for making the device, which was contained in two wheelie bins on the side of the road.

The huge bomb was found by a joint RUC/British Army patrol on Saturday and two controlled explosions have so far been carried out to make it safe.

Local UUP assemblyman, Danny Kennedy, says that given the level of threat, any plan to implement proposed reforms to the RUC would be disastrous.

This afternoon, his party leader, David Trimble, made another appeal for progress on IRA decommissioning and for Sinn Fein and the SDLP to support the police reforms proposed by the British government.

In London, high ranking officials from both the White House and Dublin are involved in intensive talks on policing and arms, headed by Bill Clinton's national security adviser, Jim Steinberg, in a last ditch bid to resolve the crisis before the President leaves office.

Meanwhile the Sinn Fein Officer Board is meeting this evening to review the crisis in the peace process.