More than a decade after declaring its first ceasefire and two months after ordering its units to lay down their arms, the final disarmament of the IRA was announced today.

Weapons inspectors said that the destruction of a ferocious arsenal, including two tonnes of Semtex explosive and a number of SAM 7 surface to air missiles, ended 35 years of armed conflict and paved the way for a "new era of peace.

John de Chastelain, a retired Canadian general who since 1997 has overseen the paramilitary organisation's long drawn-out and secretive disarmament process, said: "We are satisfied that the arms decommissioned represent the totality of the IRA arsenal."

He said it included ammunition, rifles, machine guns, mortars, missiles, handguns, explosive substances and other arms, including all the categories described in quantities matching estimates of the security forces.

He went on: "The Commission has determined the IRA has met its commitment to put all its arms beyond use in a manner called for by legislation."

Mr de Chastelain was appearing at a news conference in Belfast with two ministers from the Methodist and Roman Catholic churches, who monitored the destruction process as independent witnesses.

The Rev Harold Good, a former Methodist president, said: "We are certain, utterly certain about the exactitude of this report, because we have spent many days, long days, watching the meticulous and painstaking way in which General de Chastelain and his colleagues went about their task of decommissioning huge amounts of explosives, arms and armaments.

"The experience of seeing this with our own eyes on a minute-by-minute basis provided us with evidence so clear and so incontravertible that it demonstrated to us that beyond any shadow of doubt that arms of the IRA have been decommissioned. Decommissioning of arms of the IRA is now an accomplished fact.

"It's our hope that this development will become a benchmark in peaceful resolution of political conflicts everywhere and that for the people of Northern Ireland it will herald the dawn of a new era of peace."

Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, held a simultaneous press conference to hail the IRA's disarmament.

Martin McGuinness, Sinn Féin's deputy leader, said: "This is about more than arms. It is about reviving the peace process, it is about the future of Ireland. I believe that Ireland stands on the cusp of a truly historic advance, and I hope that people across the island will respond positively."

Meanwhile, the Loyalist community remained underwhelmed and unconvinced. A near-breakthrough in political negotiations brokered by ministers in London late last year broke down over the insistence by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) that the IRA's arms destruction process must be photographed.

Loyalists remain unconvinced that the arms destroyed represent the paramilitary organisation's entire arsenal. The presence of the two clergymen as witnesses to the process, Catholic priest Father Alex Reid and the Rev Good, was intended as a compromise.

The Rev Ian Paisley, leader of the DUP and a dogged critic of the decommissioning process, has already dismissed the move as inadequate.

And Nigel Dodds, the DUP chairman, said: "We have seen stunts, hype and spin time out of number ... so it's going to be a lot harder, more difficult, more challenging to get people to accept this as genuine."

Today's announcement comes more than a decade after the IRA first declared a ceasefire in its three-decade armed campaign to end British rule in Northern Ireland. Despite the subsequent Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which created a cross-community government intended to operate in parallel with disarmament by all paramilitary groups, progress has been slow.

Northern Ireland's devolved assembly in Stormont has been suspended for almost three years, with direct rule re-imposed from London, following a breakdown in mutual trust.

But in July, the IRA announced it was ending all violence and would campaign only through the ballot box, also pledging to finally "decommission" the last of its huge arms stockpiles.

Peter Hain, the Northern Ireland Secretary, has said that today's announcement could pave the way for a return of Northern Irish self-goverment.

The weapons which have been destroyed represent a fearsome arsenal. According to experts, the IRA’s stockpile included several Soviet-built SAM 7 surface to air missiles, rocket launchers, heavy machine guns, about 1,000 Kalashnikov AK47 assault rifles and large quantities of handguns. The republican paramilitaries also had two tonnes of Semtex B, a powerful military explosive.

The IRA's arms dumps were built up in the 1980s thanks to shipments - totalling more than 150 tonnes - from Libya. They were scattered across secret locations in the north and south of Ireland, although most were believed to be concentrated in the counties of Kerry, Cavan and Meath.

Almost half the 3,600 deaths in the conflict have been attributed to the IRA.

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