LOYALIST paramilitary leaders do not plan to abandon their ceasefires immediately but will consider returning to violence if the IRA campaign escalates.
The leadership of the UVF and UDA met on Saturday to discuss the implications of the London bomb. Sources said they decided to maintain their ceasefires but to keep the situation under review.
It is understood there would have been a more hardline reaction if the attack had been in Northern Ireland and not England. However, some sources said that militants would be arguing for reprisals in Dublin if the IRA continued to bomb London.
In recent weeks sources close to the loyalist paramilitaries had predicted that their ceasefire would hold even if the IRA one broke.
Mr Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, the political wing of the UVF, believed the bombing was "not a blip but the end of the IRA ceasefire".
By killing British citizens in England, the IRA was risking loyalist attacks in the South, he said. However, he appealed to the UDA and UVF to remain calm.
Mr Gary McMichael, the leader of the Ulster Democratic Party - the UDA's political wing - said it was vital to establish whether the IRA planned a return to full scale violence.