The Democratic Unionist Party has said the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, believes the IRA has been involved in recent violence in the North. The party held an hour-long meeting with Mr Flanagan in Belfast yesterday which it described as "very satisfactory".
The DUP also said the chief constable had been unable to confirm that he shared the assertion by the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, that the war was over for the IRA and the mainstream loyalist paramilitaries.
A police spokesman would only say the meeting had taken place but would not comment on what was said.
The DUP delegation was led by its deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, and Mr Ian Paisley jnr. The party believes the IRA was responsible for the murder of Mr Andy Kearney, who bled to death after being shot in the legs in the New Lodge area of north Belfast last month. The DUP had expressed dissatisfaction with the response it received from Dr Mowlam to its queries. Speaking after the meeting with Mr Flanagan, Mr Paisley jnr said: "It was a very good meeting. We raised Mo Mowlam's assertion that the war was over with Ronnie Flanagan. He could not confirm that it was also his view. He simply said that the Secretary of State had the right to make her own judgments and that he was not in a position to make a decision on whether the war was over. He expressed the belief that the IRA had been involved in recent violence. We welcome his comments."
Mr Robinson said: "Mo Mowlam is either completely out of touch or else she is letting her judgment be clouded by politics. She is refusing to recognise reality. She wants Sinn Fein in government so much that she is closing her eyes to what the IRA is doing."
Meanwhile, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mr Newt Gingrich, has said the time has come for listening and healing in Northern Ireland. He was speaking as he visited Inch Island in Co Donegal to trace his family roots.
Mr Gingrich, who met unionist and nationalist political leaders earlier this week, said he had heard a wide range of opinions and was confident the peace process would succeed. "There is no magic solution," he said. "What lies ahead is very hard work and we will all have to be patient."
He believed that if Sinn Fein adhered to the Belfast Agreement, the DUP might rethink its position. In an indirect reference to paramilitary organisations not on ceasefire, he said there would always be a small minority who remained outside society and they would have to be dealt with "on a criminal basis". Mr Gingrich said investment from the US would increase once the Assembly was fully functioning and the prospects would be further enhanced by decommissioning. The US Speaker later visited St James Church in Aldergrove, Co Antrim, which was badly damaged in an arson attack by loyalists last month.