Ceasefire body says IRA 'firmly set on political strategy'

The body set up to monitor paramilitary ceasefires in the North has issued its most positive assessment yet of the IRA's move away from violence.

In a report published today, the Independent Monitoring Commission says the IRA is now "firmly set on a political strategy" and is eschewing paramilitarism and criminality.

The assessment says the IRA has disbanded its military structures, has ended intelligence-gathering, has halted punishment attacks and is not capable of returning to violence.

Elsewhere, the IMC says it has been unable to draw any conclusions on who murdered Denis Donaldson, the Sinn Féin official who was shot dead earlier this year after admitting to being a British spy.