Sinn Féin's chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness has declared his war with Britain is over.
Mr McGuinness has made the announcement as republicans face pressure to decommission the IRA following the suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive.
The self-confessed former member of the Provisional IRA told a BBC television documentary he is totally committed to politics and is no longer a member of the organisation.
The former Northern Ireland Education Minister, who joined the IRA around the age of nineteen, told the documentary screened only in Northern Ireland: "My war is over. My job as a political leader is to prevent war.
"My job is to continue to ensure a political set of circumstances which will never again see British soldiers or members of the IRA lose their lives as a result of political conflict."
The former Education Minister said he joined the Provisional IRA in his native city of Derry to end injustice and be "more effective in terms of confronting the British army and the RUC."
He added: "There are limits to what you can do with a stone. There are limits to what you can do with bricks and with bottles and at the same time lead bullets were being used against the people.
The Mid Ulster MP refused to be drawn on how he rose through the ranks of the organisation to second-command in Derry at the time of Bloody Sunday in 1972 or whether he had killed anyone.
He said: "When you seek to join the IRA, you do not join the IRA to play games. You join the IRA to be part of a military force which is prepared to take on the British army and the RUC to take them on in battle. That is the reality."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman today welcomed Mr McGuinness's comments as one of the "straws in the wind" which had emerged since the Premier made his speech in Belfast effectively calling for the IRA to disband.
The spokesman said: "Since the Prime Minister's speech there have been a number of straws in the wind which have been very interesting and useful.
"One was Gerry Adams's own thoughtful speech at the weekend. David Trimble responded to that in quite a positive and thoughtful way himself and Martin McGuinness's comments add to that.
"I think people do recognise we are at the point where, as the Prime Minister said, it is a turning point, a fork in the road and we do have to talk about acts of completion."
PA