"We are fed up waiting for Sinn Fein to tell is the war is over, that the guns and semtex (explosive) have been put beyond use," she said.

She had never been believed there was a distinction between Sinn Fein and the IRA.

"That's a myth. I am fed up listening to Sinn Fein spokespersons, when they are asked about the IRA, respond and say, 'we don't speak for the IRA'.

"They are the one organisation," she told RTE radio.

"We were all prepared to give them space to move into the democratic political process. They have found there is an electoral home for them there. I don't know whether they are fully convinced of it or not - why it is they want to continue to have a private army."

Harney said there must be a complete and irrevocable break with paramilitary activity.

"There must be no ambiguity whatever. We don't want weasel words. We want a clear statement, we want the truth, we want clarity. We don't want to have to read between the lines," she said.

Harney, who leads the centre-right Progressive Democrat Party -- a junior partner in the coalition government of Prime Minister Bertie Ahern -- said there were only a "couple of key days" left that were vital for proposals from London and Dublin to move the 1998 Good Friday peace deal forward.

On Saturday, a joint statement from Ahern and British Prime Minister Tony Blair said they hoped to be able to jointly release a declaration of proposals "shortly".

"The two Governments are absolutely committed to upholding the Good Friday Agreement and are determined it must be implemented in full.

"It is important that all parties and groups join the Governments in achieving this end. The aim must be to get the institutions up and running again on a sustainable basis," the statement said.

The proposals were to have been published last Thursday, the fifth anniversary of the signing of the landmark peace accords aimed at ending 30 years of bloody sectarian strife in the British province.

Britain suspended the Northern Ireland power-sharing assembly last October and restored direct rule from London to avert a threatened walk-out by Protestant unionists amid allegations of spying by the IRA.

A key demand by unionists before they agree to return to the power-sharing Belfast administration with Catholics is for the IRA unequivocally to give up weapons for good and renounce its armed struggle.

The republican Sinn Fein is insisting on police reforms and a scaling back of the British army's presence in Northern Ireland.

SPACE.WIRE