Quinn died after he was severely beaten in Co Monaghan last month. His family said the IRA killed the 21year-old after he had defied an order to leave the country.

Sinn Fein has denied any republican involvement.

"The IRA Army Council did not sanction the killing but IRA members did kill Paul, " Laird told the Belfast News Letter yesterday.

"I will name names and lay out all the information I have.

We cannot allow this to be brushed under the carpet like Robert McCartney, the Northern Bank and Denis Donaldson.

"I am not just getting at Sinn Fein but the security services, the government, the lot. I am deeply concerned at what appears to be a lack of progress by the security services on both sides of the border."

Republican sources have told the Sunday Tribune that the Provisional IRA as an organisation abducted and killed Paul Quinn. The attack was ordered by the south Armagh OC (officer commanding) and approved by an Army Council member from the area, they claimed.

Known in the media as 'the Surgeon', the prominent IRA man in his mid-40s has been responsible for many killings, although he has never been convicted.

These claims contradict security sources who insist the killing was carried out by either criminals, ex-IRA members or individual lowlevel Provisionals acting without authority.

While 'the Surgeon' gave the go-ahead for the beating, it wasn't sanctioned by other Army Council members, the sources said. Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness are reportedly furious at the political embarrassment the killing has caused.

Quinn, from Cullyhanna, was lured to a farm near Oram, Co Monaghan. Up to eight men beat him to death with iron bars. Friends also claimed they used nail-studded cudgels.

Sinn Fein described the murder as a fallout between "criminals" and "fuel launderers". However, this is rejected by local people. The Sunday Tribune was given detailed accounts of two rows Quinn had with local IRA members and their associates.