London  - A teenager accused of the murder of a police officer in Northern Ireland just over a fortnight ago was armed with an assault rifle and more than 25 bullets, a court was told Tuesday.

The 17-year-old boy became the first person to be charged late Monday in connection with the recent upsurge of terrorist violence in the province in which the police officer and two British soldiers were killed.

The teenager, who was remanded in custody, has also been accused of being a member of the Continuity IRA, a banned dissident offshoot of the now dissolved Irish Republican Army (IRA).

He denied all the charges and was remanded in custody following his appearance at the Magistrate's Court in Lisburn, south of Belfast.

The Continuity IRA claimed responsibility for the killing of police constable Stephen Carroll, in the town of Craigavon, on March 9.

His murder followed the killing of two British soldiers 48 hours earlier at Massereene barracks, north of Belfast, in what were the first acts of terrorist violence in Northern Ireland since the signing of the 1998 peace agreement.

Three men and a woman remain in custody over the Carroll murder, but two suspects were released without charge late Monday. Four men are held in connection with the murder of the two soldiers.

Human rights groups in Britain and Northern Ireland have criticized the prolonged detention of the suspects without charge. Under British law, suspects be held without charge for up to 28 days.

The High Court in Belfast Tuesday granted permission to six of those still held to challenge their prolonged detention without being charged.

Gerry Adams, the President of Sinn Fein, the pro-Irish Republican Party which previously had close links with the IRA, has likened the extended detention of the suspects to the period of direct British rule over the province and the controversial policy of "internment without trial."

People were currently being held for periods "extending beyond human rights best practice," said Adams. "This is not acceptable. They should either be charged now or released." (dpa)