U.S. set to ban Real IRA

Devastation in Omagh by a car bomb that killed 29

LONDON, England (CNN) -- The United States is expected to outlaw a dissident republican group believed to have carried out Northern Ireland's worst recent bombing atrocity.

The State Department is set to announce on Wednesday that it has designated the Real IRA as a foreign terrorist organisation, senior State Department sources tell CNN.

The Real IRA split from the mainstream Irish Republican Army in 1997 and is believed to be behind the August 1998 car bomb attack in Omagh that killed 29 people.

As a result of the designation, many activities, including fundraising, of the Real IRA or its two so-called "front groups" or "political pressure groups" -- the "32 County Sovereignty Movement" and the "Irish Republican Prisoner Welfare Association" -- will be illegal, officials say.

The move will freeze the group's U.S. assets, making it unlawful to provide funds or other material support to the Real IRA, while representatives and certain members could be denied visas or excluded from the U.S.

A senior State Department official says this is the first time a group with "heavy ties" to the U.S. -- with "sympathisers and supporters" coming from the U.S. -- has been designated as a terrorist organisation. But the "British and Irish government publicly asked us to look into this."

The expected move comes as British authorities fear an upsurge in terrorist activity in mainland Britain ahead of the general election.

The Real IRA has been blamed for several recent bombings in London, including a massive blast at the BBC's London television studios in which one bystander was injured.

Unlike the IRA, which is under ceasefire and consequently not banned by the U.S., the Real IRA opposes the 1998 Good Friday Agreement on which the current peace process is based.

However, republican political party Sinn Fein -- the IRA's political arm -- said a ban would be counter-productive.

A Sinn Fein spokesman told CNN: "The U.S. is one of the mainstays of the Northern Ireland peace process and will no doubt continue to be so under President Bush, but it should concentrate on showing dissident republicans that the way forward is through politics.

"This kind of legislation has never stopped groups before, and outlawing an organisation could risk making it more attractive to young people."

But the UK's national Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted Northern Ireland's First Minister David Trimble as saying: "It is quite remarkable that the organisation responsible for the largest single atrocity in Ireland in 30 years has not been listed as terrorist."

Just hours after a failed mortar bomb attack on a British Army base near the Irish border, relatives of those who died at Omagh said they believed an announcement by the State Department was imminent.

Victor Barker, whose son James was among those killed in the Omagh explosion, told the Press Association news agency: "They are being banned because they are a terrorist organisation. Remember, they kill little children," he said.

No one was hurt in the latest attack in Northern Ireland, which security sources told PA was probably the work of the Real IRA.