Talk to al Qaida, says top officer

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Sir Hugh Orde, head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said he could not think of a single terrorism campaign in history that ended without negotiation.

Sir Hugh, reportedly a front-runner to be the next commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, said that 30 years of tackling the IRA convinced him that policing - detecting plots and arresting people - was not enough alone to defeat terrorists.

He admits that negotiating with terrorists means "thinking the unthinkable" and said that some of the biggest risks his officers took were talking to people that "historically they would not have dreamed of talking to".

He cites his 2004 meeting with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams as an example of how one-time enemies can become partners in peace.

Asked if he was saying "we should talk to al-Qaeda", Sir Hugh said: "Well that's the logic of...I don't think that's unthinkable, the question will be one of timing."

He also called for the number of police forces to be slashed from 43 to nine to better fight terrorism and warned the threat from dissident republicans in Ulster was at its greatest in five years.

He also said the idea of parachuting people from the private sector into senior policing roles was "barking mad" and said police chiefs who took the media "personally" would be finished.

On Tuesday terrorists attempted to fire-bomb a JJB sports shop in Belfast but failed after the device failed to properly detonate.

Sir Hugh said Irish terrorists still wanted to bomb the UK mainland, but lacked the capability. They were still attempting to buy weapons but were disorganised, "psychopathic" and probably numbering no more than 200 people.