LITTLE BRAY (Ireland) - AN IRISH paramilitary group responsible for dozens of murders during three decades of violence in Northern Ireland has renounced its armed struggle, its political wing said on Sunday.

The Irish National Liberation Army's renunciation of violence came as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Dublin before heading to Belfast in a bid to boost the peace process.

The INLA, a splinter group of the main paramilitary Irish Republican Army (IRA), was responsible for some of the bloodiest actions in the Irish conflict after it came to prominence in 1975.

'The Republican Socialist Movement has been informed by the INLA that following a process of serious debate... it has concluded that the armed struggle is over,' said Martin McMonagle of the Irish Republican Socialist Party, the INLA's political wing.

'The objective of a 32-county socialist republic will be best achieved through exclusively peaceful political struggle,' he added, referring to the aim of a united Ireland, including counties in the British province of Northern Ireland. The statement made at a ceremony in Little Bray, south of Dublin, made no mention of decommissioning weapons.

The INLA's decision is also likely to boost Northern Ireland's peace process, which has hit a stumbling block in recent weeks in a dispute between the main Protestant and Catholic parties over when to devolve justice and policing powers. -- AFP