'The end of the gun in Irish politics'

Watchdog says IRA has decommissioned all its arms.

"The decommissioning of the arms of the IRA is now an accomplished fact," said John de Chastelain, the retired Canadian general who has been responsible for overseeing the decommissioning process since 1997.

"This can be the end of the use of the gun in Irish politics," he added.

He presented a confidential report on his weapons inspections to the British and Irish governments this morning following several months of decommissioning actions in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

He said they had been decommissioning since July but the bulk of the work had been done in the past week, finishing on Saturday.