The Ulster Defence Association has confirmed that it has decommissioned all weapons under its control.
The loyalist paramilitary group put the remainder of its arsenal out of use in recent weeks.
Representatives of the political wing of the UDA, the Ulster Political Research Group, told the media at a news conference today that the UDA's work with General John de Chastelain and his team has now been concluded.
Describing the move as being 'of major significance', UPRG leader Frankie Gallagher categorically denied that the
decommissioning was bought with the offer of government investment in loyalist areas.
The UDA was established in 1971 as a cover name for several loyalist organisations.
It was the largest of the loyalist paramilitary organisations with thousands of members and was responsible for around 400 murders between 1971 and 2001.
Heavily involved in criminality, including the drug trade, it was behind a string of sectarian killings in the name of the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF).
These included the Greysteel massacre in 1993, when gunmen entered a pub in Co Derry and opened fire, killing eight people.
Notorious former members included Johnny Adair, expelled in 2002, Jim Gray, shot dead in east Belfast in 2005, and Andre Shoukri, who is serving a nine-year prison sentence for extortion and blackmail.
The UDA was banned on 10 August 1992.
It was one of several paramilitary groups that took part in a loyalist ceasefire in October 1994. Six weeks earlier, the IRA had declared its first ceasefire.
In 2000, seven people died after a bloody feud between the UDA and rival loyalist group the Ulster Volunteer Force.
Government recognition for the UDA ceasefire was removed in October 2001 because of the feuding and drug dealing.
However, in November 2004 former Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy said the British government would again accept the ceasefire following UDA pledges to engage in the peace process.
In November 2007 the UDA issued a Remembrance Day statement in which it said its 'war' was over. The following day it said all weapons were being put beyond use.
