The IRA will not in any way undermine the peace process or the Belfast Agreement, Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams claimed today.
In a statement which was being billed as the definitive position from republicans on the IRA's future, Mr Adams said: "The IRA leadership makes it clear in its statement that it is determined that its activities will be consistent with its resolve to see the complete and final closure of the conflict."
The Sinn Féin leader said: "The IRA leadership is determined that there will be no activities which will undermine in any way the peace process and the Good Friday Agreement".
"The IRA statement is a statement of complete peaceful intent. Both governments have already acknowledged this.
Mr Adams said there was now a need for the British and Irish governments to publish their joint declaration on the future implementation of the Good Friday agreement.
It was unclear this afternoon how much importance Dublin and London would attach to Mr Adams' statement.
Mr Ahern talked with Mr Blair on the phone this afternoon and are understood to have discussed the statement.
Earlier, Downing Street reacted cautiously to Mr Adams's statement.
A spokesman said: "The key question is does that mean that punishment beatings, exiling, arms procurement and development, intelligence gathering and targeting are at an end? "Let's see if it means that or not."
Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble said the Republican movement had failed to answer the question being posed, as to whether all paramilitary activity was at an end.
Speaking after meeting with British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair in Downing Street this afternoon Mr Trimble said Mr Adams' speech last Sunday "did not in fact contain very much that can be regarded as positive or helpful".
He said his party wanted "a clear line drawn in the sand" by the Republican movement.
Mr Adams made his speech as Mr Trimble and Mr Blair were meeting today.
SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said Mr Adams's statement reflecting the IRA leadership's position was so within the hinterland of what was asked for by both governments that it was untenable to reject it as wide of the mark.
"Those who previously briefed that the essential question was the difference between 'should' and 'will' can't dismiss the added value of today's clarification, nor should they resort to new claimed difficulties," he added.
The hardline Democratic Unionist Party was quick to dismiss Mr Adams's statement as a "cynical election stunt".
North Belfast MP Mr Nigel Dodds said: "A qualified clarification of Tony Blair's three meaningless questions does not move us one iota closer to the day when Sinn Fein enters the democratic process.
Leading Irish-American businessman Mr Bill Flynn, chairman of the NationalCommittee on American Foreign Policy, urged the two governments and MrTrimble to accept Mr Adams's statement.
He said: "We at the National Committee are totally satisfied that therepublican movement is committed to a complete cessation of all those activitiesinconsistent with the Good Friday Agreement, all of those activities that areinconsistent with a peaceful democratic society and all of those activitiesinconsistent with the rule of law."