Plans to reduce the number of troops in Northern Ireland early in the new year have been postponed, according to senior British army sources. While two companies of soldiers - around 250 personnel - had been due to return to their home base, sources said the plans had been put on hold.
Ironically, the British army had been ready to make the reduction when the IRA ceasefire appeared to be under pressure, with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, struggling to keep the republican movement behind the peace process. The decision has now been reversed at a time of unrest within the loyalist paramilitary groups over the direction the governments are taking on the peace process.
The Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's political wing, is threatening to withdraw from the Stormont talks next month in protest at the "endless stream of concessions to republicans". There is also understood to be dissatisfaction within the UDA.
There are some 15,500 British soldiers in the North. A further 1,500 remain under the orders of the army GOC in the North but are stationed in Britain.
British army sources indicate that troop levels will not be reduced immediately. It is understood that military chiefs will not act until there are strong signs that both the republican and loyalist ceasefires will hold.
Around 250 members of the Parachute Regiment were withdrawn last month, the first reduction since the IRA ceasefire was reinstated in July. It is understood that, after a review of British army levels, it was decided that there was little scope for further reductions without weakening the security forces' ability to respond to violence at short notice.
Meanwhile, the mother of the British soldier killed by the IRA in Co Armagh earlier this year has urged local politicians to do their utmost for peace. She fought back tears as she told reporters how it was St Stephen's Day last year when her son, Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, returned to Bessbrook from Peterborough. Six weeks later, an IRA sniper shot him dead.
Ms Rita Restorick said she had expressed her hopes for peace in Christmas cards to the leaders of all the North's political parties; the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern; the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair; and the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam.
She hand-delivered her message to Mr Adams when he visited Downing Street earlier this month. It said "no other young men have to lose their lives while politicians seem unwilling to listen to each other".