SF to hold first meeting with new Northern Secretary

Sinn Fein is due to hold its first meeting with Northern Secretary Paul Murphy today, a day after the IRA announced its decision to cease co-operation with the decommissioning body.

Most observers have interpreted the IRA move as the opening gambit in protracted talks between republicans and the British government on the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement.

In today's meeting, Sinn Fein is expected to call for an implementation plan, with the issue of policing believed to be top of the agenda.

Yesterday, the party's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, said the old RUC Special Branch has been transferred en block into the new PSNI, despite recommendations in the Agreement that it eventually be disbanded.

Mr McGuinness said a lot still needed to be done before republicans could believe the new police force was genuinely accountable.