including the full text of the IRA statement
The IRA has said it is ready to begin a process that would "completely and verifiably" put its weapons beyond use.
The statement was issued in response to new proposals from the British and Irish Governments designed to break the deadlock in the Northern Ireland peace process.
The blueprint envisages a return to power-sharing in the province within 16 days, although it hinges on a firm commitment to disarmament by paramilitary groups.
The republican group said that within weeks it would make a "confidence-building measure to confirm that its weapons remain secure," in the context of the Good Friday Agreement being fully implemented.
The statement came after an announcement that the UK Government no longer expected the IRA to disarm by 22 May as stated in the agreement.
However, the IRA has not promised to destroy weapons as unionists have demanded, and has only said that their arms dumps can be inspected by agreed third parties who will report to the decommissioning body.
The former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari and former ANC secretary general Cyril Ramaphosa have been named to lead those inspections.
The IRA statement said: "The contents of a number of arms dumps will be inspected by agreed third parties who will report that they have done so to the international independent commission on decommissioning.
"The dumps will be re-inspected regularly to ensure that the weapons have remained secure."
The IRA also says that the process of putting weapons "beyond use" will be done in such a way as "to avoid risk to the public and misappropriation by others".
It says it will seek to ensure "maximum public confidence".
The IRA also confirms that it will resume contacts with the decommissioning body, broken off after Northern Ireland's political institutions were suspended in February.
It repeats that it "poses no threat to the peace process" but says that its actions will only happen in the context of "progressive and irreversible" political progress.
David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, gave the statement a cautious welcome.
Speaking outside a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Assembly Group at Stormont he said he felt the statement was very interesting and clearly broke new ground.
"There are some quite positive elements in it," Mr Trimble said.
But he said there were areas which still needed clarification, particularly about the ways of ensuring weapons remained secure.
He said over the course of the next few days he would continue to "tease out" the meaning of the statement before coming to a conclusion and considering what the position of the party would be.
However, hardline Ulster Unionist Jeffrey Donaldson said the latest IRA statement should not change party policy.
The MP for Lagan Valley criticised the IRA's offer to put its arms "beyond use".
He said: "The IRA statement is not disarmament and not decommissioning. It should not lead to any change in Ulster Unionist Party policy.
"We should not go back into government when not one single bullet has been handed in."
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said the IRA had made an emotional and painful step.
Mr Adams said: "I know there have been some who have been sceptical about whether republicans, the IRA in particular, were really interested in this process.
"I think today's statement shows that they are.
"The IRA doesn't have to do this. It is only doing this to try and give some assurance to those who are nervous or who are genuinely concerned.
"The IRA is not just stretching itself. It is actually overstretching itself to try to bring about the restoration of the peace process."
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson said he felt the IRA's announcement was a jump forward rather than just a step.
"For the first time we have heard directly from the IRA not Sinn Fein that henceforward they are going to adopt peaceful means in seeking their political objectives" he said.
Mr Mandelson said he hoped other paramilitaries would now follow the IRA's lead.
SDLP leader John Hume, who was instrumental in getting the peace process under way by holding talks with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, said the statement was "very positive".
Mr Hume said: "I think it is making very clear that the gun has been taken out of Irish politics for ever."
"The most significant part [of the statement] is that they are going to put their guns beyond use, and they are going to have that verified."
The extension of the disarmament deadline was made by Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson on BBC Radio 4.
He said it would be moved from 22 May to June 2001, a new target date set for the implementation of all of the other outstanding sections of the agreement.
The IRA's refusal to disarm led to the suspension of Northern Ireland's political institutions when the Ulster Unionists refused to continue sharing power with Sinn Fein, which is closely linked to the paramilitary group.