Door open: Mr Blair says the IRA has done what it was asked to do. [File photo]
Last Update: Thursday, October 5, 2006. 5:00am (AEST)

Blair hails end to IRA campaign

British Prime Minister Tony Blair says the door is open for a final peace settlement in Northern Ireland after an independent report concluded that the IRA is no longer engaged in paramilitary violence.

The Independent Monitoring Commission says the IRA has shut down its bomb-making department and stopped recruiting members.

It also says Republican leaders have shown a commitment to the political process and discouraged criminality among their ranks.

Mr Blair says many will find it difficult to accept that the IRA has ended its campaign but the report's findings are clear.

"The IRA's campaign is over," he said.

"There is now a consensus among all the main players in the politics of Northern Ireland that change can only come through persuasion and not through violence of any sort.

"The IRA has done what we asked it to do."

He says politicians from both sides must work with courage and commitment when they meet in Scotland next week to discuss a final political settlement.

"While issues like policing remain to be resolved, the door is now open to a final settlement, which is why the talks next week in Scotland are going to be so important," Mr Blair said.

"This will be a unique opportunity. I hope all the parties understand that and seek that opportunity to create a future for the people of Northern Ireland."

About 3,600 people were killed in Northern Ireland's 30-year conflict between mainly Catholic Irish republicans and pro-British Protestants.

The conflict largely came to an end with the US-brokered Good Friday Agreement in 1998.

However, politicians have struggled to sustain the arrangements for local government established under that deal.

The assembly, in which Catholics and Protestants ran the province's affairs, was suspended in 2002.

Continued IRA violence has been one of the main barriers to its restoration.