The Police Ombudsman will publish her report into police activity before and after the Omagh bombing without waiting for a response from the North's Chief Constable.
As the dispute over who was responsible for leaking the draft report into the bombing continued, the Ombudsman's office, the Northern Ireland Office and the Police Service of Northern Ireland all denied the leak had come from them, while the Police Service laid the blame for the leak at the door of the Ombudsman's office.
The Ombudsman, Ms Nuala O'Loan, had originally asked the Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, to respond to her draft report by yesterday so that she could present the finished report on Wednesday. A police spokesman had earlier indicated that it would be seeking further time; by yesterday evening the Chief Constable had failed to respond.
The Ombudsman's office would not comment, but it is understood that Ms O'Loan will still present the findings and recommendations of her report, without the Chief Constable's response, on Wednesday.
The draft report was passed by the Ombudsman to the police and the Northern Ireland Office on November 28th, and yesterday spokesmen for each body expressed confidence that the leak had not come from them.
The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, condemned the leak as malicious and hurtful and said he had his "own private views" about who was behind it.
Dr Reid said on RT╔ he would be investigating within the NIO and expected the Chief Constable and Ombudsman to do the same. An NIO spokesman said Dr Reid did not have the power to compel any investigation by either body.
A Police Service spokesman laid blame for the leak at the door of the Ombudsman's office.
Meanwhile, Sir Ronnie is considering asking police officers from other British forces outside the North to take over the Omagh investigation. He has already discussed the strategy in preliminary talks with the Inspector of Constabulary. Sir Ronnie said: "If that's what it takes to reassure victims that no stone will be left unturned in this investigation, which remains current and live, then we will bring in a team from outside."
Sir Ronnie insisted that an anonymous warning of an attack on police in Omagh had "nothing to do" with the bomb attack on the town. That this warning was not passed by RUC Special Branch to local RUC officers is at the heart of the row over the leaked report.
Sir Ronnie said the call was assessed to have no merit. "This male caller purported to report that two named individuals would be having delivered to them four AK47 rifles and two rocket-launchers on behalf of the Continuity IRA," he said.
"The caller went on to allege that these weapons would be moved to a named location to another individual, also named. From there they would be moved to some spot, two to three miles outside Omagh, for an attack on the police in Omagh on August 15th. On checking their records, Special Branch officers saw those named in the call were criminals without paramilitary connections.
"They made an assessment this call did not merit further action. Indeed there never was a semblance of a gun and rocket attack upon the police, two to three miles outside Omagh on the 15th, which indicates their assessment was right," he said.
"Even if action had been taken, it would not have been action that in any way could remotely have led to interception of a bomb that was en route to Omagh," he said.