Army experts in Northern Ireland defused a massive roadside bomb on Tuesday, averting what could have been a "devastating" explosion in the long-troubled British province, police said.
   
The discovery of the 600-pound (270-kilo) home-made device came six months after dissident Republicans shot two British soldiers and a police officer, reviving the spectre of violence a decade after a landmark peace accord.

The device was found hours after officials said that the last remaining loyalist paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland had pledged to decommission weapons within six months.

The decommissioning process would take place under the auspices of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said.
   
"The end is in sight for the decommissioning process," Woodward said.
   
"So much has been achieved by the IICD since it was established and I would urge all groups to continue to work with the commission and put their arms beyond use before the scheme comes to an end in February."
   
Loyalist paramilitary groups have reportedly killed around 1,000 people between them during several decades of unrest known as the Troubles.

The bomb was found outside the village of Forkhill near the border with the Irish Republic in South Armagh, along with a command wire from the roadside where it was found to the other side of the border.
   
"There could have been a devastating outcome to this incident," Newry and Mourne police commander Chief Inspector Sam Cordner said.
   
"The actions of terrorist criminals in planting this device ... put local people and police officers at significant risk. Their actions were reckless and dangerous in the extreme."
   
He added: "Their target may have been the police, but they did not care who they killed or injured. It is only through the hard work and professionalism of police officers and their military colleagues that the area has been made safe."
   
Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson said the bomb showed there was a clear and ongoing [threat] of terrorism.
   
"It shows that there are evil people out there still prepared and with the equipment to take life in Northern Ireland.
   
"I am delighted it has been defused, but it does show that there is still a very real and present danger. It indicated there are people who still have to be dealt with by the PSNI."
   
The bomb was the biggest found in Northern Ireland for a long time.
   
In January a 300-pound bomb was found in Castlewellan, in the southeast of the province, and in May the components of a 100-pound bomb were seized near Rosslea, in County Fermanagh in the south.
  
The Ulster Defence Association and its breakaway faction have given the undertaking to the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD), Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward said.
   
Loyalists are Northern Ireland Protestants who want the province to remain part of Britain and are historic foes of Catholic republicans, who believe it should become part of the Republic of Ireland.
   
A 1998 peace accord ended most of the violence which had plagued Northern Ireland for three decades, killing at least 3,500 people.
   
Devolved self-rule is now in place in the British province after a landmark accord in 2007 between the Protestant Democratic Unionists (DUP) and Catholic Sinn Fein.
   
The Irish Republican Army (IRA), the main republican paramilitary group, finished destroying its arsenal four years ago, overseen by the commission.