The Northern Ireland Assembly has united to condemn the latest attempts by dissident republicans to derail the peace process.

But while all parties hit out at the failed bids to kill a police officer and bomb policing board headquarters, political divisions over devolving law and order powers to the Assembly also surfaced.

Police on both sides of the Irish border are continuing to question five people over an attempt to kill a Northern Ireland police officer in the border village of Garrison, Co Fermanagh.

Detectives are also investigating the 400lb bomb abandoned outside the policing board offices in Belfast within an hour of the Saturday night murder bid, but which failed to explode.

The Democratic Unionist Party's (DUP) Arlene Foster praised police who had to open fire as they moved-in to prevent the Fermanagh attack and said a young recruit had been targeted for opting to serve the community.

"There must be a message coming from this place today, and that message must be a strong and united one," she said. "My party leader at the weekend said that there can be no going back. We need to move forward into a confident Northern Ireland, a Northern Ireland that is normal, a Northern Ireland that very much has confidence in moving forward. We need strong political leadership from this House and indeed outside of this House."

Fermanagh-South Tyrone MP Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Fein also condemned the dissidents.

"The people carrying out these attacks are doing so against the expressed wishes of the Irish people and to wreck the advances of the peace and political process," she said.

The DUP and Sinn Fein are divided over the devolution of policing and justice powers from Westminster to the Assembly. Government has offered a £1 billion package to finance the move, but while republicans want a deal before Christmas, the DUP has said it will not move until it is ready.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) detained four people aged 22, 26, 32, and 41 in connection with the Fermanagh attack, while Garda officers in the south arrested a fifth person aged 27 in Dooard, Co Leitrim. The PSNI said officers were fired at once, and returned two warning shots.