Loyalist paramilitaries in Northern Ireland are set to confirm they have decommissioned a major cache of weapons.
The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) are expected to release statements confirming reports that they have carried out major acts of disarmament.
Weapons were also destroyed by the Red Hand Commando (RHC) as part of a process overseen by the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD).
Earlier this month it emerged that the loyalist groups had taken moves to begin decommissioning all their weapons - as the IRA did four years ago.
The move was welcomed by the British and Irish governments at the time, but they said that they were awaiting official confirmation of the disarmament act, and information on the scale of the arms cache destroyed, in a formal report from the IICD due to be published in August.
But after news of the decommissioning leaked out, it had been expected that the loyalist groupings would take steps to confirm they had started to destroy their illegal weapons.
The loyalist UVF and UDA are now expected to confirm that they have decommissioned weapons and explosives.
There had been predictions that the groups would issue a joint announcement, but they are now set to issue separate statements.
The UVF is understood to have carried out a major act of decommissioning, while the UDA has carried out a more small scale act, which may be described as the beginning of a wider process.
The decommissioning was witnessed by General John de Chastelain and his officials from the IICD.
