British reaction: British prime minister Tony Blair hailed yesterday's announcement by the IRA as "a step of unparalleled magnitude in the recent history of Northern Ireland".
He said he hoped it would prove to "be the day when finally, after all the false dawns and dashed hopes, peace replaced war, politics replaces terror on the island of Ireland".
London mayor Ken Livingstone also welcomed yesterday's "historic" statement by the IRA which, he said, should "permanently banish the gun from Irish politics".
However, the Conservatives conspicuously failed to formally "welcome" the IRA statement.
Shadow Northern Ireland secretary David Lidington said the IRA "must now cease to exist as an effective paramilitary organisation, and the decommissioning of all illegal arms and explosives must be completed and verified in a manner that commands public confidence".
Mr Lidington continued: "All paramilitary and other criminal activities - including intimidation, shootings, beatings, robberies, smuggling and money- laundering - must end for good.
"Republicans must accept the legitimacy of the police and criminal justice systems, North and South, and encourage full co-operation with them," he said.
Downing Street confirmed last night that the Independent Monitoring Commissioning would report on the state of paramilitary activity in October and has been asked to bring forward its subsequent scheduled report by three months, to January next.
Asked if they had in mind a timetable for the possible resumption of negotiations about the revival of the powersharing institutions, Mr Blair's official spokesman said the important difference from previous situations was that this was "a unilateral move" by the IRA that was not linked to consequent political steps.
Earlier Mr Blair said he welcomed the statement that ended the IRA's campaign, and also its clarity: "I welcome the recognition that the only route to political change lies in exclusively peaceful and democratic means. This is a step of unparalleled magnitude in the recent history of Northern Ireland."
He added: "The Unionist community, in particular, and all of us throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom, will want to see this clear statement of principle kept to in practice."
However, Mr Blair stressed his belief that "the statement is of a different order than anything before" and said it created the circumstances in which the institutions of the Belfast Agreement could be revived.
"Unionism will want to know that these circumstances are permanent and verified," he said: "But if in time they are, then proper devolved democratic government should be restored to Northern Ireland."
Dan Keenan adds:
Northern Secretary Peter Hain last night moved to explain his decision to release Shankill bomber Sean Kelly from prison a month after he ordered his rearrest.
The IRA man had been serving nine life sentences for the 1993 Shankill bombing until his release in 2000 on licence under the terms of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Kelly had been sent back to prison on June 18th after trouble had flared at a protest against an Orange march in the Ardoyne in north Belfast.
Mr Hain said at the time his decision was founded on PSNI intelligence that Mr Kelly was reinvolved in terrorism and was a threat to public order.
However, last night Mr Hain said the release of Mr Kelly was "temporary" pending a review by the Sentence Review Commission, and claimed that the political situation had been dramatically altered by the IRA's announcement. "The statement by the IRA has created a new situation and thereby changed the context of my original decision to suspend Sean Kelly's licence.
". . . Having seen the statement I judged that it materially affected the evidence that I would have submitted to the Sentence Review Commissioners."
Mr Hain continued: "In particular the material on which I based my original decision no longer supported the conviction that Sean Kelly would be a danger to others if he were at liberty."