The "Real IRA" is not about to call a ceasefire and has not approached the Government with an offer to end its military campaign in return for the release of prisoners, a senior source in the organisation has said.
The source said recent media reports that it was on the brink of calling off its campaign were wrong. This was an attempt to "write off" the organisation at a time when the Provisional IRA was facing discontent among its grassroots over decommissioning.
According to one media report, Ms Bernadette Sands McKevitt - whose husband, Mickey, is on remand in Portlaoise Prison facing charges of membership of an illegal organisation and directing terrorism - was behind an approach to the Government.
However, a senior "Real IRA" source told The Irish Times that the claims were "total nonsense" and said the group was not involved in any negotiations. "╙glaigh na h╔ireann is not on the brink of announcing a ceasefire."
He claimed the stories were aimed deliberately at weakening the "Real IRA" and damaging its credibility when some republicans, unhappy with the Provisional IRA's decommissioning, were looking for an alternative. A Government spokesman also denied the claims that the "Real IRA" had approached it with a ceasefire offer.
The "Real IRA" called a cease-fire after the Omagh bombing in 1998, in which 29 people died. Although it never officially ended its ceasefire, it has carried out dozens of attacks in the North and in Britain over the past 18 months.
It was responsible for two bombings in London this year - at the BBC's headquarters in March and in Ealing Broadway in August. Last year, it launched a mortar attack on the MI6 headquarters. Security sources have said they were "very fortunate" to avoid casualties in a range of attacks in the North, particularly the bombing of Ebrington Barracks in Derry.
The Sinn FΘin president, Mr Gerry Adams, confirmed yesterday that he had accepted an invitation to go to Cuba and called for the release of three Irishmen held in Colombia, including the party's representative to Havana. "I was invited to go to Cuba to unveil a memorial to the 10 Irish hunger-strikers who died 20 years ago", he said in New York. "It is my intention to go to Cuba." He did not say when he would make the visit.