A republican paramilitary group which killed more than 100 people during the Northern Ireland Troubles has announced that it has decommissioned its weapons.

The Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) confirmed it has disposed of its illegal arsenal in recent weeks through the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).

The splinter group was responsible for some of the most infamous attacks of the Troubles, including the killing of Conservative MP Airey Neave in 1979.

Four months ago the INLA used a graveside oration outside Dublin to confirm its "armed struggle is over" and it vowed to end its 35-year campaign of violence in Northern Ireland.

A spokesman for the group, Martin McMonagle, told a Belfast press conference the INLA had disarmed.

"We make no apology for our part in the conflict," he said.

But he added: "We believe that conditions have now changed in such a way that other options are open to revolutionaries in order to pursue and ultimately achieve our objectives."

A prominent member of the INLA's political wing, and a former INLA prisoner, he said his group would now work to encourage political progress.