The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said there was a determination that the weapons decommissioning issue would not "drift on into election time in the North next year". He admitted, however, that there was no date set for its completion.

In the Dáil yesterday, Mr Ahern said the original date for completion of decommissioning has been extended, and that the Independent Commission on Decommissioning "does not want to stay an undue length".

"It is prepared to see it out for a period of time but I know that Gen de Chastelain has been putting pressure on for some time to move this on to completion, and there are other colleagues involved in that also.

"While there is no date, there is a determination that this will not drift on into election time in the North next year," Mr Ahern said.

The Taoiseach held out little prospect of loyalist decommissioning. Asked by the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, if there was any progress towards loyalist weapons being put beyond use, he said: "Unfortunately, that is easy to answer - no.

"There does not seem [to be] any real engagement or any evidence of it. I do not see that arising from what I've heard for some considerable amount of time. I do not think it is on the horizon from what I pick up from security sources."