Orde: SF has politicised police

He also revealed that among the documents recovered in the investigation into an alleged republican spy ring were transcripts of conversations between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George Bush.

“The facts are very simple,” he said.

“On October 4 we searched property in west Belfast and recovered hundreds of pages of documents.

“I am looking at some of them now.

“These documents exist. They are real.

“Most have sensitive information targeted against politicians, against civil servants, against members of the police service, against members of the prison service.

“There is also a large number of documents relating, for example, to discussions between the prime minister and the president of the United States, discussions between government and the Northern Ireland political parties, with the exception of Sinn Féin.

"We have not recovered anything in relation to that party.

“There are documents taken from the Parades Commission. It’s a large number of documents which exist. We have them in our possession and as a result, police had a limited search of one office at Stormont and two discs were taken as part of that investigation.”

Mr Orde was commenting on BBC Radio Ulster four days after the dramatic revelation that one of three men accused of operating a republican spying operation three years ago at Stormont was a British agent.

Denis Donaldson, 55, Sinn Féin’s former head of administration, was arrested in October 2002 and accused along with his son-in-law Ciarán Kearney and civil servant William Mackessy of operating a spy ring that resulted in hundreds of documents falling into republican hands.

Twelve days ago, the Public Prosecution Service in Northern Ireland announced at Belfast Crown Court that it was dropping the case against the three men because it was no longer in the public interest.

In another sensational twist, Sinn Féin announced on Friday that it had expelled Mr Donaldson after he confessed to being a police and Army spy for 20 years.

Mr Donaldson appeared on television confessing that he had spied on his comrades in the republican movement for 20 years after being compromised during a vulnerable time in his life.

He echoed Sinn Féin claims that there was no republican spy ring and that the allegation was a fiction dreamed up by people in the security services to bring down the power-sharing government in the North three years ago.

Sinn Féin’s claim has been vigorously disputed by Northern Secretary Peter Hain and today by Mr Orde.

Mr Hain has also rejected calls from unionists, the cross-community Alliance Party and moderate nationalists for a public inquiry into the 'Stormontgate' affair.

In recent days Sinn Féin has protested that there are elements in the Police Service of Northern Ireland opposed to, and determined to wreck, the peace process.

The party has alleged that politically-motivated policing operations have taken place in the North.

But Mr Orde told BBC Radio Ulster: “If there is anyone who has politicised policing, it is Sinn Féin.

“Let us look at what was delivered by us in terms of driving the peace process forward.

“The Police Service has delivered. We have implemented 78% of Patten reforms, not my words but the words of the Oversight Commissioner.

“We have completely reformed how we handle intelligence to deal with these issues.

“The problem is that I cannot talk about this particular one but this is all under the command of the assistant chief constable (crime) who took over after this event.

“We have modernised, normalisation is coming in, the towers are coming down, we are pushing the edges of policing.

“What is missing is Sinn Féin’s participation on the Policing Board, where they can hold officers to account.”