BELFAST (AFP) - The security forces have found a cache of ammunition suspected of belonging to Northern Ireland's main Roman Catholic paramilitary group, the Irish Republican Army (IRA), a security source said.
The discovery immediately sparked the condemnation of Northern Ireland's Protestant leadership which said the IRA could not be trusted as a partner in the stalled peace process.
Security forces seized some 10,000 rounds of Russian-made 7.62 calibre ammunition during a search last week of a home in the Catholic western outskirts of Belfast, a security source said.
Such ammunition is used in Kalashnakov automatic rifles.
The owner of the house in Twinbrook where the ammunition was found appeared before a court at the weekend and was accused of illegal possession of munitions with the intent to endanger the lives of others.
The accused pleaded not guilty to the charges but the source said the security forces are convinced the munitions belong to the IRA.
The security source said the ammunition had been made in Russia within the last six years and smuggled into Northern Ireland.
The report is likely to further erode chances for reviving the peace process.
"The IRA are talking peace but are capable of war," said Ian Paisley Junior, son of the leader of the Protestant Democratic Unionist Party DUP).
"It confirms and vindicates the stand we've taken," he said.
Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, "are not fit for government and won't be until decommissioning is complete," he said. "The woman who was charged is not a dissident but she's associated with the Provisional IRA."
The 1998 Good Friday deal largely ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland, and introduced a power-sharing government bringing in parties from both sides of the divide.
In 2001, the IRA pledged to decommission its weapons.
However the assembly was suspended in October 2002 amid a breakdown in confidence.
11/14/2004 - 19:50 GMT - AFP