Paisley sets sights on 'prolonged assessment' of IRA intentions

Ian Paisley’s Democratic Unionists today warned Tony Blair that they would require a “prolonged period of assessment” to determine whether the IRA had given up its armed campaign.

Following talks in Downing Street with the British Prime Minister, Mr Paisley said that there could be no return to a power-sharing government in the North until his party was certain that the IRA had given up all its arms and ended its paramilitary activities.