A proposal by the Northern Ireland Attorney General to end investigations into killings during the Troubles has been met with outrage from the relatives of those who died.

John Larkin QC claimed a line should be drawn under offences perpetrated before the signing of the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement.

Mr Larkin stressed that his proposals did not amount to an amnesty, but said: "More than 15 years have passed since the Belfast Agreement, there have been very few prosecutions, and every competent criminal lawyer will tell you the prospects of conviction diminish, perhaps exponentially, with each passing year, so we are in a position now where I think we have to take stock."

Over 3,500 people lost their lives during the 30-year conflict.

In the majority of cases no-one has ever been convicted.

Amnesty International spokesman Patrick Corrigan called Mr Larkin's proposals "an utter betrayal of victims' fundamental right to access justice."

Stephen Gault, whose father Samuel was killed in the 1987 IRA Poppy Day bombing in Enniskillen, said he was disgusted by Mr Larkin's comments.

"How dare he airbrush the innocent people who were murdered at the hands of terrorists to move things forward," he said.

And Mickey McKinney, whose brother William was killed by the Parachute Regiment on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, branded the proposal "ridiculous."

Police officers are currently reinvestigating Bloody Sunday following the publication the Saville inquiry into the massacre and Mr McKinney said any suggestion the investigation would be halted would cause great anger.

"My brother and everybody else who was shot dead on Bloody Sunday was murdered, it was state murder, it would cause outrage," he said.

Politicians of all stripes also condemned the proposal.

DUP Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson said: "There is no nation in the free world today where murder is not a crime, you cannot say that murder is not a crime - it is.

"There are 3,000 unsolved murders in Northern Ireland and those families are entitled to the right to pursue justice."

SDLP Assembly Member Alban Maginness said: "For Mr Larkin to say that his proposal does not constitute an amnesty is wrong.

"This would amount to a blanket amnesty and the SDLP does not believe that this would be acceptable."