The IRA has issued a clarification on its confidential draft statement on its future following queries from the governments of Britain and Ireland

With Tony Blair and the Irish prime minister, Bertie Ahern, ready to fly to Belfast at short notice to announce a "blueprint" intended to revive the Stormont Assembly, the IRA had responded to queries on three aspects of its draft statement.

In return for plans to reduce troop numbers and allow fugitive republican terrorists to return without fear of a jail term, the IRA is expected to carry out "acts of completion" - meaning an end to all paramilitary activity.