Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland are poised to confirm they have decommissioned a major cache of weapons, it emerged tonight.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is expected to release a statement tomorrow morning confirming reports that it has carried out a major act of disarmament.
Weapons were also destroyed by the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and the Red Hand Commando (RHC) as part of a process overseen by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).
Earlier this month it emerged that the loyalist groups had taken steps to begin decommissioning all their weapons, as the IRA did four years ago.
The move was welcomed by the British and Irish Governments at the time, but they said that they were awaiting official confirmation of the disarmament act, and information on the scale of arms cache destroyed, in a formal report from the IICD due to be published in August.
But after news of the decommissioning leaked out, it had been expected that the loyalist groupings would take steps to confirm they had started to destroy their illegal weapons.
The loyalist UVF is now expected to confirm tomorrow that it has decommissioned weapons and explosives.
The decommissioning was witnessed by General John de Chastelain and his officials from the IICD.
There has been speculation that General de Chastelain may also issue an early statement to confirm what has taken place.
The IICD was established in 1997 to oversee the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons, with those passing illegal weapons to the body granted immunity from prosecution.
The political process was dogged by efforts to secure IRA decommissioning, which was eventually completed in 2005.
The UVF campaign of violence stretches back to the mid-1960s when loyalists lashed-out over the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Rising and against early calls for full civil rights for Catholics in Northern Ireland.
In 1966 it killed two Catholic men, John Scullion and Peter Ward, plus Protestant woman Matilda Gould who was caught up in an attack on a Catholic-owned bar next to her home.
The UVF carried out the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in 1974 which caused the largest single loss of life in the conflict, killing 33 people.
The group killed 550 people during the Troubles, while the UDA, which also operated under the flag of convenience of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), claimed 431 lives.
The Red Hand Commando, a splinter group allied to the UVF, killed 19 people.
The UDA was formed in 1971 and is the largest paramilitary group in Northern Ireland, once boasting tens of thousands of members.
It controversially remained a legal organisation until 1992 when it was banned by the then Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew.
PA