Gerry Adams has denied claims that he knew of an IRA campaign which led to informers being abducted and murdered in the 1970s.

Sinn Fein's president rejected claims made in a new book that he was in charge of a key part of the IRA at the time a unit was set up which murdered and secretly buried at least nine informers.

Adams refuted the allegations - denying membership of the IRA.

Veteran journalist, Ed Maloney, claims in his new book, "A Secret History of the IRA", that Adams was the Belfast commander of the IRA in 1972 at the time the unit was created.

Among those who disappeared was mother of 10, Jean McConville, who was a suspected informer.

The IRA admitted in the 1990s that the unit existed but her body has never been found.

The book also claims that Sinn Fein had direct contact with the Thatcher government after the Brighton bomb - until a series of atrocities led to an end to talks which were carried out through a priest who acted as an intermediary.

Adams repeated an earlier statement that he had been an active member of Sinn Fein but added "I have not been a member of the IRA".