Senior Sinn Fein figure and former IRA prisoner Mr Martin Ferris has described as "inaccurate and misleading" a report posted on the Internet suggesting that he did not believe the IRA would decommission.
Mr Ferris issued a statement from the United States yesterday distancing himself from an Internet report of comments he purportedly made to republican supporters in St Louis, Missouri, indicating the IRA did not plan to disarm.
He spoke on Tuesday night before the IRA statement saying it would appoint an interlocutor to Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body. A synopsis of the report posted on the republican bulletin board on the Internet intimated a republican belief that the executive would continue with two Sinn Fein ministers even if the IRA did not carry out some form of decommissioning.
The synopsis had Mr Ferris saying that it would be "political suicide" for Mr Trimble to withdraw from the executive if the IRA did not decommission. He added that the British government would be "even less likely to bring down the agreement because of a lack of decommissioning".
Yesterday's Daily Telegraph quoted Mr Ferris as saying through the Internet report: "If IRA guns are silent, the executive is up and running and doing business, the Assembly is up and doing business, why on earth would Blair collapse all of that over the non-decommissioning of guns that are silent anyway?"
Mr Ferris described the Internet report as "secondhand", and both "inaccurate and misleading".
Mr Ferris said this week had seen very significant developments. Hopes were revived that the Belfast Agreement would be fully implemented. "We want to work with unionists. We fully accept that decommissioning is an essential part of the peace process and we will fully discharge our responsibilities in this regard," he added.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, said the British government would make it clear what would happen if the IRA did default on decommissioning. He said it was a "matter of very grave concern" that a senior republican such as Mr Ferris should be reported as making such comments.
The Northern Ireland Office said it was aware of Sinn Fein's statement of the Internet report and that the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, had no comment to make.
Mr Peter Weir, an anti-agreement Assembly member who has lost the Ulster Unionist Party whip, said Mr Ferris "has truly let the cat out of the bag" in relation to what he believed was the IRA's true position on decommissioning.
"Sinn Fein anger over release of the statement is surely the first break in the carefully-planned con job which is being presented to the Ulster people. Their anger is that the truth has been inadvertently revealed," he said.
