Preliminary drafts of the Independent Commission report on the RUC recommend that the membership of the force should effectively disband and reapply to join a newly constituted police service.
It is also understood to recommend strongly that all symbols that could be construed as partisan, including the flying of the Union flag, the hanging of pictures of Queen Elizabeth in police stations and the force's current insignia should be dropped.
The name proposed for the new force is the Northern Ireland Police Service.
The Irish Times has learned that the Commission, under the chairmanship of the former Hong Kong governor Mr Chris Patten is understood to be considering a strategy for attracting more Catholic applicants to the new force while maintaining the current levels of security provided by the RUC.
It is expected there will be an initial surge in recruitment and the new force might expand from its current strength of around 8,500 regular members by as many as 4,000. This would offset the more immediate effects of disbanding the 4,300-strong RUC Reserve and allow for better Catholic representation in the new force.
It is also envisaged that the bulk of the new force would be unarmed; that it would no longer be a single centrally-controlled force but have greater regionalised control with new linkages to local authorities; and that the current 25-week in-force training programme for recruits be replaced with a longer and broader programme.
It is understood the Commission's preliminary views -and preliminary is stressed - on the creation of the new force envisage the effective disbandment of the RUC. Serving members would be invited to reapply to the new police service.
Those who did not wish to do so would be entitled to generous severance payments and pensions. It is also proposed that an RUC service medal be struck for members who have served with the force. This would recognise and commemorate the sacrifices made by RUC officers, 302 of whom have died on duty.
In anticipation of the commission recommendations - which are not due to be finalised until late next spring - the staff association representing rank-and-file RUC members yesterday linked the as yet unpublished recommendations to a government deal over arms decommissioning. The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, yesterday insisted however there was no question of a trade-off between reform of the RUC and decommissioning of paramilitary arms.
Attempting to allay fears expressed by Mr Les Rodgers, chairman of the North's Police Federation, Dr Mowlam said: "There is no read across from one part of the agreement to another, no preconditions, no relations. What it says is that all parts have to move in parallel." Mr Rodgers yesterday said disbandment of the RUC would be the act of a "very weak government" and "show an inability to recognise the sacrifice of the RUC who have brought this very peace process to where it is today". There could also be a "total breakdown in law and order because you need a strong police service".
He warned against "mounting pressures to create a climate for a trade-off in which the price of decommissioning will be the future of the RUC".
RUC Chief Constable Mr Ronnie Flanagan said last night that it was "wholly wrong" to link the reform of the RUC to the decommissioning of IRA armaments.