Plan for troop cuts in Northern Ireland

An ambitious plan to make severe cuts in the Army's strength in Northern Ireland was revealed last night.

If all goes well, all 10 of the controversial border watchtowers will be gone by the end of next year, with many other bases closing and the overall number of troops eventually more than halved to 5,000.

But the plan depends on a continuing reduction in the terrorist threat, which is being referred to as an "enabling environment". Ministers and security chiefs will weigh up the threat posed by the mainstream IRA and the dissident Real IRA.

Crucially, the launching of the programme will depend on an early move by the IRA in response to Tony Blair's call for "acts of completion". The demilitarisation initiative is one of the moves aimed at restoring devolved government in Belfast.

Elections to the Belfast Assembly are scheduled for the end of May, but by that stage the authorities hope the IRA will have responded with a substantial act of decommissioning and other confidence-building measures.

The three-phase plans envisage only 5,000 troops remaining by the end of 2005, which is viewed as a standard garrison that would no longer be active on the streets.

The police service would be the first line in security terms, with republicans endorsing its legitimacy and encouraging young republicans and nationalists to join.

The scores of military bases presently operational would be reduced to 14, including army headquarters in Lisburn and main posts such as Palace Barracks in Holywood, Co Down.

Many existing bases were opened during the Troubles while the IRA campaign of violence was in full spate. The hope now is that the IRA and Sinn Fein will be able to convince the Government, and the various Northern Ireland parties, that the IRA war is over. In the early 1970s, troop levels topped 25,000.