"Hillary Clinton will urge Northern Ireland's leaders today to finish the work of the Good Friday accord by agreeing a timetable for transferring police and justice powers from Westminster.

"The US Secretary of State's visit coincides with the announcement that a terrorist group is going out of business. The Irish National Liberation Army, which in 1979 murdered the MP Airey Neave, declared its war over yesterday, in a statement delivered over the grave of its founder Seamus Costello.

"After talks in Dublin with Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach, Mrs Clinton said of the stand-off between the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin: There are questions and apprehensions but I believe that due to the concerted effort of the British Government, the Irish Government, the support of friends like us in the United States, the parties understand that this is a step they must take together. I will certainly provide as much support as I can.

"Speaking earlier in London, she said that there was now no financial support from American sympathisers for the evil enterprise of republican terrorists such as the Real IRA."

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