The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) today renounced violence, promised it had put its weapons beyond use and said it would cease to exist as a paramilitary group at midnight tonight.
One of the most feared and deadly terror groups in Northern Ireland, the loyalist UVF has killed more than 500 people since the province's Troubles flared in the late 1960s.
Downing Street welcomed the statement, though Tony Blair's official spokesman said "we await to see it delivered in action".
Nationalist and republican politicians also welcomed the move but had misgivings about the claims weapons had been put beyond use, demanding independent verification. Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, said the move was "another critical step", but added that "for many people it won't go far enough".
The UVF stopped short of committing itself to the weapons decommissioning which the IRA has undertaken. The statement signalled that UVF weapons had been placed in secure locations known only to senior UVF personnel.
The UVF statement was read out this morning in west Belfast by Gusty Spence, one of the founders of the modern day UVF in 1966. The statement, signed Captain William Johnston, said the UVF and its associated group, the Red Hand Commandos, "will assume a non-military, civilised role".
Mr Spence, who was jailed for one of the UVF's first murders in 1967 and who is now a pro-Belfast Agreement politician, said: "All recruitment has ceased. Military training has ceased. Targeting has ceased, and all intelligence rendered obsolete."
On weapons, the statement said: "All ordnance has been put beyond reach and the IICD [Independent International Commission on Decommissioning] instructed accordingly."
The IICD, which is tasked with overseeing paramilitary disarmament, welcomed the UVF statement but expressed "concern" the group had dealt with the issue of its weapons on its own. The IICD offered to meet the UVF to talk about how to "work together in dealing with arms".
Billy Hutchinson, a former Progressive Unionist Party Assembly member turned community worker who once served 16 years for a UVF murder, insisted the weapons were no longer a threat.
He said: "Guns have triggers and they need to be pulled. They were pulled because people were involved in a political struggle. The guns have been put beyond reach. They are not a danger to anybody."
Nationalist SDLP Assembly member Alban Maginness said the UVF had made a "big step" away from terror and criminality, but added: "Arms are not really beyond reach while they are under the sole control of the UVF."
Speaking about the decommissioning aspect, Mr Adams was not highly critical of the statement. He said: "I just think this is a process and let's just take this one step, one day at a time. Every time a group like the UVF is moving forward, whatever the judgment from our point of view, then it has to be measured and responded to in a positive way."
Mr Adams did, however, refer to claims that up to 100 republicans were recently told their details were in the hands of the UVF and their lives were in danger.
Overall, the announcement is likely to be seen in London and Dublin as an indicator the peace process is still on track ahead of the restoration of the province's power-sharing government at Stormont next Tuesday.
The UVF first declared a ceasefire almost 14 years ago, just after the IRA's first cessation, as part of the process which led towards the April 1998 Good Friday peace agreement. However, since then the organisation has been blamed for more than 20 murders.
In April the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which reports on the activity of paramilitary groups in the province, said the UVF was no longer involved in terrorism but said it was involved in organised crime.
Today's UVF statement warned loyalists to stay away from crime. It said: "We reaffirm our opposition to all criminality and instruct our volunteers to cooperate fully with the lawful authorities in all possible instances. Moreover, we state unequivocally, that any volunteer engaged in criminality does so in direct contravention of Brigade Command."
The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, said there had to be delivery "but there is a momentum carrying Northern Ireland forward and loyalism needs to be part of that".
He referred to a recent IMC report that "acknowledged that the leadership within loyalism wants to move forward and this is an important manifestation of that".
Mr Hain said that, following the move, he would consult with the province's chief constable, Sir Hugh Orde, about de-specifying the UVF as a paramilitary group.
The UVF statement followed a series of meetings by the UVF's political representatives with the Republic of Ireland's Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, Sir Hugh and Mr Hain.
Today's move by the UVF will increase pressure on the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the largest of the Protestant paramilitary organisations still heavily involved in all forms of criminality, to follow the same path.
The UVF statement expressed regret about past violence but also said the group reaffirmed the "legitimacy of our tactical response to violent Nationalism". The statement ended: "For God and Ulster."
Northern Ireland as part of the British Isles.Northern Ireland is shown in orange, the rest of the United Kingdom is peach, and Ireland is white.
The Northern Ireland loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) intends to end its decade-long campaign of violence and terror and will disarm, making it the first loyalist paramilitary to do so.


However, unlike the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the UVF will not fully decommission weapons. Instead the illegal organization will put weapons "beyond reach" of ordinary members in secure caches only known to UVF leadership. 

The group, considered a terrorist group in both the United States and United Kingdom issued a statement, read by Gusty Spence, a founding member of the UVF, which stated that "as of 12 midnight, Thursday 3 May 2007, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Red Hand Commando will assume a non-military, civilianised, role."

It also added, "All recruitment has ceased; military training has ceased; targeting has ceased and all intelligence rendered obsolete; all active service units have been deactivated; all ordinance has been put beyond reach and the IICD instructed accordingly." 

However, according to the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), this does not meet the requirements set out in government legislature. Although it welcomed the news of disarmament, the Commission said it was "concerned by the UVF's intention to deal with their arms without the involvement of the IICD".

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern suggested the UVF work with the Commission "with a view to full decommissioning". Sinn Fein welcomed the news of UVF's disarmament. "This is a welcome statement if it signals a recognition of the new political reality where there is no room for armed or violent actions," said John O'Dowd of Sinn Fein.

The British Prime Minister's office expressed cautious optimism over the UVF announcement. "We need to see how today's announcement is translated into action," said a spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The group has been on a cease-fire since 1994 in response to the IRA ceasefire. The group was responsible for 427 deaths during the violent period in Northern Ireland known as the "the Troubles" some of which was notoriously violent, which included a group of members known as the "Shankill Butchers" who committed a series of grisly murders of Catholics in Belfast and the Dublin and Monaghan bombings, which claimed the life of 33 victims and was the deadliest terrorist incident during the Troubles to happen in the Republic of Ireland.