Loyalist pipe bombers are undermining the unionist case for IRA disarmament, Stormont Enterprise Minister Sir Reg Empey said today.
Mr Empey said: "The fact is the outstanding matter with respect to this Agreement is the issue of disarmament.
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"I know this argument is taking place in an atmosphere where people are running around the country with pipe bombs.
"Those people who clearly are loyalists are actually completely undermining the unionist case on disarmament because the republicans are saying to us that while we are asking republicans, demanding republicans disarm, these loyalist elements are running around pipe bombing."
A man and a woman were in custody today after three pipe bombs were found in a security operation in north Belfast last night.
Residents of a number of homes were evacuated in a loyalist part of Newtownabbey, just outside the city, while British army bomb experts searched the area, the RUC said.
An RUC spokeswoman said the devices were found at a house in Carn Crescent in the New Mossley estate just before 8 o'clock.
The search formed part of a co-ordinated operation across the Belfast region.
Suspicious items were seized and taken for examination from a house at Blythe Street in the loyalist Sandy Row area in south Belfast. A man was arrested.
A RUC spokesman said: "The RUC is continuing to do everything possible to deal with the recent outbreak of sectarian attacks in Belfast and elsewhere and bring those responsible before the courts.
"We would appeal to anybody with information on these devices to contact us immediately and help take them out of circulation in the interests of the entire community."
Sectarian clashes also occurred last night in Derry, with petrol bombs and stones being thrown by nationalists and loyalists at homes, cars and an RUC Land Rover.
Petrol bombs were hurled into the Fountain Estate and cars parked near the Apprentice Boys' Memorial in Society Street were also stoned.
A crowd at Fountain Street threw stones at houses in Longtower Court and Upper Bennett Street, smashing several windows. The RUC also came under attack from both factions, with a Land Rover being struck in Abercorn Road.
The violence flared as Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams and senior negotiator Martin McGuinness returned to Northern Ireland following a meeting with the Prime Minister Tony Blair at Downing Street.
Irish and British government officials are continuing to work around the clock with the North's parties to find a way of reconciling differences in the peace process over IRA decommissioning, policing and British demililtarisation.
PA