Northern Ireland secretary, Dr John Reid, has accused the IRA of taking a "historic step backwards" with its withdrawal of a five day old proposal to put arms beyond use.

The setback was an IRA protest at unionist rejection of proposals viewed by republicans as "historic" and by politicians in Dublin and London as groundbreaking.

As the authorities in Colombia revealed further details of the three suspected IRA members arrested there, Reid described the combined arrest and arms decommissioning reports as "calculated to encourage scepticism and that can't be good for the peace process".

Security sources claim that the arrest of the suspected IRA trio reveal the Provisionals to be on "an active war footing". The three men, reveal sources, are senior members of an IRA "engineering unit" sent to Colombia to exchange information on bomb-making techniques. Garda commissioner, Pat Byrne, said the suspects were from the Irish Republic and were known as IRA men. The Mirror reveals that the "IRA unit" was trapped by SAS soldiers working with the Colombian government.

Police in Belfast and Dublin launch a new inquiry to bring to justice the Omagh bombers on the third anniversary of the bombing which killed 29 people.