Sir Ronnie Flanagan has insisted he will not resign as the top British police inspector following his apology for the serious shortcomings of the Omagh investigation.
He was RUC chief constable as the time of the first Omagh investigation, which was severely criticised by Mr Justice Weir last month when Seán Hoey was found not guilty on 56 charges relating to the 1998 outrage and other bombings that year.
"I do not see what positive outcome there would be through my resignation," he said yesterday.
He repeated his regrets that no one had been convicted for the murders of 29 people in Omagh, adding that he was also sorry for the shortcomings of the bombing investigation while he led the RUC, as cited by the trial judge last month.
Dame Nuala O'Loan, former police ombudsman, who first criticised the RUC's Omagh investigation in 2001, has resisted calls to demand Sir Ronnie's resignation.
She told BBC Northern Ireland there was no point in seeking his resignation as head of the police inspectorate for failings that occurred when he was chief constable of the RUC.
Holding to the position she adopted at the time she published her critique of the Omagh case, Dame Nuala said she believed the original RUC investigation was defective to the point where it compromised current efforts to find the guilty and bring them to court. But she would not comment on calls for Sir Ronnie to step down from the British police oversight body.
British prime minister Gordon Brown has already voiced his confidence in Sir Ronnie in his current role. Home secretary Jacqui Smith endorsed this view last night.
Omagh relatives are divided on the question of resignation. Victor Barker, father of one of the victims, is standing by his demand for Sir Ronnie to quit. But Michael Gallagher, who heads the Omagh victims support group, said: "There have been serious failings at all levels on both sides of the Border and the only way to address all these issues is through a comprehensive independent cross-Border public inquiry rather than having them raised in a piecemeal fashion." He said that Sir Ronnie "could bring a lot of knowledge and help to an independent inquiry and I would hope he would freely go and open up".
The former senior RUC officer whose criticisms of former police colleagues helped lead to the current situation said others, rather than Sir Ronnie, should be held to account.
Former chief superintendent Brian McVicker told the Press Association: "Sir Ronnie...was the top layer of supervision, but there were others just below him, the men on the ground. They are just as much to blame as he is..."