MPs extend arms deadline

A decision to give paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland another 12 months to disarm has been agreed by MPs.

The move was agreed in the House of Commons on Tuesday as an existing deadline was due to expire later this month.

Under the order, ammunition and explosives can be decommissioned and individuals would be granted immunity from prosecution.

Security Minister Jane Kennedy told MPs that the peace process had come to a fork in the road and it was now time for everyone in Northern Ireland to choose the peaceful and democratic path.

Jane Kennedy: "There must be an end to all paramilitary activity"

"It is time for acts of completion, there must be an end to all paramilitary activity," she said.

"If that commitment is given we can implement the rest of the Agreement including normalisation in its entirety and not in stages."

Ulster Unionist Leader David Trimble called on all paramilitaries, loyalist and republican, to decommission their weapons.

He also warned that the present verification arrangements were not sufficient.

"Even if we had a situation where the paramilitaries announced that they were disbanding, would that statement itself have credibility? I doubt it," he said.

"If a secret army says it has disbanded how can we prove it?"

However, DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said the debate resembled a farce and said the difficulties the government were now experiencing were a direct result of the flawed Belfast Agreement.

With a majority of 396, MPs agreed to extend the decommissioning deadline until February 2004.