Mr Chris Patten has said the North's new police service reflects fully his committee's report on policing and has urged the IRA to begin decommissioning without delay, writes Denis Staunton in Damascus.
Mr Patten said republicans no longer had any excuse to put off decommissioning its weapons.
"I find it incomprehensible that the IRA continues to play with words about decommissioning. If the Good Friday agreement is not about taking the gun out of politics, what is it about? This endless balancing of machine guns on pinheads is not an adequate way forward," he said.