DUP 'will only share power if IRA completely disbands'
The prospect of political progress in the North is fading further today following an insistence from the Democratic Unionist Party that it will not share power with Sinn Féin unless the IRA completely disbands.
The comments were made by party spokesman Nigel Dodds last night as the DUP prepares to hold its annual conference this weekend.
The Irish and British governments want the party to enter talks on power-sharing arrangements based on the IRA's promise to end all non-peaceful activity.
The Independent Monitoring Commission said earlier this week that the republican movement was making real progress towards honouring this promise.
However, Mr Dodds said the report from ceasefire monitoring body had justified DUP caution that the IRA was as far from democracy as ever.
He asked why people in the North should be forced to put up with the IRA in any form when Minister for Justice Michael McDowell had himself said that the group's existence was unacceptable.
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