The Chief Constable of Northern Ireland today accused the Provisional IRA of carrying out the Belfast bank robbery in which £26.5 million was stolen.

In an unequivocal statement, Hugh Orde said that every major line of inquiry in the massive investigation pointed in the direction of the Republican terror group.

His blunt attribution of blame is expected to end all hopes of progress in the Northern Ireland peace process for the foreseeable future.

In an added twist, Mr Orde revealed that the Northern Bank was withdrawing all its banknotes and reissuing them in a different colour and style, making the December 19 heist of mainly Northern Irish notes "the largest theft of waste paper in history".

Mr Orde said that he had come under unprecedented pressure from all sides of the political divide in Northern Ireland to name the suspects, but that he had not bowed to political pressure in deciding to make his statement.

His only motive in naming the IRA as the culprits, he said, before any arrests have been made or charges brought, was to help the police investigation, whose progress was being hindered by constant speculation about who had done it.

He said that the political fallout from his statement was not his concern. All he cared about was operational policing, and it was for politicians to respond to the implications of what he had said.

Mr Orde said that more than 45 detectives were working on the inquiry, and greater numbers of forensic experts and intelligence analysts. They had conducted 100 interviews and planned 100 more, analysed a large number of crime scenes, gathered 560 separate pieces of evidence, and sifted through large amounts of intelligence.

"On the basis of the work we have done, the evidence we have gathered, the information we have collected and the exhibits we have collected, in my opinion the Provisional IRA were responsible for this crime," Mr Orde told a press conference.

"All the main lines of inquiry being undertaken currently are in that direction."

Questioned by reporters, he added: "I would not be making that statement if I was not confident."

Both Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Republican movement, and Martin McGuiness, have denied that the Provisional IRA was to blame.

Ian Paisley Junior, a senior figure in the Democratic Unionist Party, indicated this morning that the DUP would refuse to work with Sinn Fein if Republicans were linked to the bank raid. A deal to restart the peace process came agonisingly close last month, stalling only the DUP's insistence on photographic proof that the IRA had destroyed all its weapons.

Mr Orde's announcement effectively accuses the IRA of planning the raid while Sinn Fein's negotiators were in Downing Street talking to Tony Blair and the Irish Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern.

Reporters at today's press conference accused the Chief Constable of damaging the peace process by attributing blame without producing supporting evidence.

Mr Orde replied: "We are not damaging any process. The process is a matter for others. This is an operational decision, it is my decision, and it is an important decision because we need to get on with this investigation.

"The issue for my officers is to solve the crime. The debate was moving in a direction that was making that more difficult. It was therefore entirely right and proper that I make this statement today."

Unlike any other major police inquiry in Northern Ireland in the past, Mr Orde added, Special Branch was sharing every single piece of intelligence about the heist with the senior detective in charge of the case.

Some of this intelligence dated from before the bank robbery, he said, contradicting reports that the police had been taken unawares by a crime of such magnitude.

Downing Street later said that Mr Blair fully supported Mr Orde in making his statement. The bank raid was to be reported to the Independent Monitoring Commission, which assesses paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland.

Peter Robinson, the deputy leader of the DUP, said that the news had "raised the bar" for Republican involvement in the political process, and made it necessary to have a continued pause for a "decontamination period".

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