Sinn Fein has attempted to calm fears following the arrest of three IRA members in Columbia by stressing it believes the republican terror group "posed no threat to the peace process".

However, as the party's chief whip, Alex Maskey, pointedly refused to say that the "war is over" the Ulster Unionist Party said it no longer had any faith in the provisional ceasefire.

In a separate move, a grieving widower yesterday interrupted a police press conference in Omagh which was announcing a new investigation into the 1998 bombing of the town.

Lawrence Rush accused senior police officers and Downing Street of incompetence and cover-ups during new appeals for witnesses. Yesterday was the third anniversary of the attack.