Kennedy: 'No decision taken to scrap RIR'

Britain's security minister in the North, Jane Kennedy, has insisted that the British government has not taken any decision to disband the Royal Irish Regiment.

Reports earlier this week said the British government was planning to scrap the RIR as part of its demilitarisation commitments under the Good Friday Agreement.

The move has caused fury among unionists and a minor split in the Ulster Unionist Party.

UUP leader David Trimble has called an emergency meeting of the party's executive to discuss how to defend the RIR, but his hardline anti-agreement colleague Jeffrey Donaldson has demanded a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council.