Parties must support police reforms, says RUC chief
New Northern Ireland policing arrangements will not work fully without backing from all political sides, the RUC chief constable has said.
The SDLP is resisting pressure to nominate members to the Policing Board which will oversee the restructuring.
But Sir Ronnie Flanagan says it is crucial the party signs up to the plan.
Sinn Fein has insisted that unless the Patten Commission's proposals on police reform are fully implemented it will not back the new arrangements.
The SDLP are demanding more changes to the proposals before it agrees to nominate members to the board and agrees to recommend the new Police Service of Northern Ireland as a career for young Catholics.
But Sir Ronnie says that political parties have a responsibility to co-operate if the problems over policing, which are contributing to the deadlock in the peace process, are to be overcome.
He said: "We must all work together and I'm certainly doing my best to see that political representatives, community representatives and communities from all directions work in partnership with us. "
Meanwhile, Sir Ronnie has confirmed that undercover surveillance operations would be reviewed in a bid to thwart further loyalist pipe bomb attacks in Larne, Co Antrim.
"My commanders down in that area are meeting this morning and they are going to review what they are doing both in an overt sense and indeed in a covert sense."
He says he has no doubt that members of the loyalist paramilitary grouping the Ulster Defence Association has played a role in the campaign of violence in the town.
