British Army action 'should mirror IRA's'

Foreign Minister Brian Cowen says the British Army should start demilitarising in Northern Ireland if IRA decommissioning goes ahead.

Brian Cowen says Britain will need to make a security reassessment if arms are put beyond use.

He says Gerry Adams would not have called on the IRA to decommission unless he believed the group would respond positively.

Mr Cowen said: "Obviously if we have an act of decommissioning there has to be a security reassessment of the situation.

"The need to proceed with demilitarisation is an important political imperative so people in those areas recognise that politics works."

Asked if he expected the IRA to decommission in response to yesterday's statements of "historic significance", Mr Cowen said: "I am very hopeful that we can see progress in this issue. There has been progress for some time in relation to it."

He agreed with Mr Trimble's comments that the statement would not have been made unless action was expected to follow.

Mr Cowen also responded to DUP leader Ian Paisley, who has said he did not trust the independent decommissioning commission under General John de Chastelain, as a mechanism for putting IRA weapons beyond use.

The Foreign Minister said the commission had the full confidence of the Irish, British and United States administrations.

"Unfortunately Dr Paisley has never supported the Agreement in full or in very many substantive respects," Mr Cowen said.

"The fact of the matter is that the vast majority of people want this to work, they want to ensure that the Good Friday Agreement can get away from this stop-start process that has bedeviled us."