British army patrols will be withdrawn from the streets of Belfast by the weekend because of "very significantly reduced terrorist threat", the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, announced yesterday.
He denied the development was part of a trade-off in the hope of IRA decommissioning. However, republican sources acknowledged that there is now immense pressure on the Provisionals to hand over some weapons.
Speaking as he introduced the RUC's annual report, he said he wanted to move as quickly as possible to the position where there was no need for military patrolling anywhere in the North.
However, in various areas there was still a need for a military presence, he added.
"After this weekend we will be returning to the position where there will be no military patrols in the greater Belfast area," Mr Flanagan said. "It is a very welcome development and it is made possible by the fact that we are continuing to have a significantly reduced terrorist threat."
The Chief Constable stressed he did not mean in any sense that there was no terrorist threat.
"We want to protect the people of Northern Ireland against the likelihood, against the possibility, of such crimes," he said. The number of troops needed in the North was under active review and Mr Flanagan implied that soldiers could soon be flown out.
He said the hunt for the Omagh bombers was progressing very satisfactorily and he was convinced police inquiries would lead to prosecutions.
He insisted that the security reduction in Belfast had nothing to do with efforts to encourage IRA decommissioning.
"There can be no trade-off. I have a duty to care for and protect the people."
He said the RUC had played a vital role in the peace process. "The momentous developments of the past few months were made possible for a complex variety of reasons, not least because of the RUC's success in creating the opportunity to enable the public and their elected representatives to even countenance discussing their age-old fears and mistrust with those of other, diametrically-opposed views."
But he stressed there was still not yet unqualified peace. "We are moving inextricably, I believe, towards that goal. But formidable hurdles remain."
Those paramilitary groups holding to their definition of what constituted a "cessation of military operations" remained a "potent threat" to the process.
In addition to decommissioning actual weapons, there was a need to decommission the mind-sets of those who would kill and bomb, he added.
Mr Flanagan described "punishment" attacks as totally unacceptable. The victims were often those least able to protect themselves and their assailants were often guilty of far more appalling crimes than those of which they accused their victims.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, welcomed the removal of troops from Belfast's streets and said it would decrease troop levels generally in the North.
Sinn Fein's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin said the move was "inadequate" and demanded that the British army be "immediately withdrawn" from the North.
The president of the Alliance Party, Dr Philip McGarry, hoped there would soon be an end to all military patrols. The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Mr David Alderdice, said the move brought them closer to their goal of lasting peace.