The IRA will eventually be "removed from the equation" in Northern Ireland if the peace process is steered back on track, Sinn Féin chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin said today.
He said Sinn Féin was convinced it could "do a deal with unionism" but that calls for the immediate demise of the IRA were a "mistake".
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During a round of talks with MPs and newspapers in London, Mr McLaughlin called for talks between all sides in Northern Ireland following suspension of the power-sharing Stormont administration earlier this month.
He told a news conference: "They [the IRA] have made a very significant contribution to the peace process along the way. It is my view that a legitimate objective of the peace process is the elimination, the disappearance, the removal of all paramilitary activity.
"There is a logic emerging that we will see the IRA being removed from the equation".
But Mr McLaughlin said: "The difficulty is that people will seize on that as an outcome of the peace process and say we want to advance it before we go any further into the process. I think that is a mistake".
A statement released by Sinn Féin today repeeated calls for the British government to instigate a new round of talks.
PA