THE fragile multi party talks in the North will face a new crisis today as loyalist paramilitaries and their political representatives are accused of duplicity following a booby trap bomb attack on a Catholic family in Co Antrim.
The integrity of the loyalist ceasefire, and the British government's acceptance that it is still intact, are certain to be strongly challenged following the attack in Larne in which a couple and their five month old baby narrowly escaped injury.
No paramilitary group has claimed responsibility for the incident but strong suspicion has focused on extreme loyalist elements, also believed to have been responsible for two bomb attacks on republican figures in recent weeks.
The Larne attack came just hours after the IRA intensified its campaign of violence with a "coffee jar" bomb attack on an RUC base in east Belfast.
The two incidents reinforced claims that the loyalist paramilitaries - or at least certain extreme elements among them - are now operating a de facto policy of retaliation for IRA violence in spite of repeated assertions by the fringe loyalist parties that the ceasefire called by the Combined Loyalist Military Command (CLMC) remains in place.
While politicians last night awaited evidence of loyalist involvement in the Larne bombing, it will inevitably fuel further demands by the DUP and the UK Unionist Party that the fringe loyalists, the UDP and PUP, be called to account at the multiparty talks for a breach of the Mitchell Principles.
If the UDP and PUP spokesmen refuse to condemn the attack and to credibly disavow it on behalf of the loyalist paramilitary leadership, there will be intense pressure for the exclusion of those parties from the Stormont talks.
The Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, will today be challenged to revise his opinion that the CLMC ceasefire is intact. The independent chairman of the talks, former senator Mr George Mitchell, will face formal complaints about the loyalist position at next Monday's full plenary session of the talks.
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, is likely to redouble his weekend demand that the CLMC should issue a statement on the status of its 1994 ceasefire. Thee DUP secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said last night if loyalists were responsible for the attack it raised serious questions about the continued presence of their political representatives at Stormont.
"Loyalists must state clearly" what they are about at this time," he said. "A situation where attacks are taking place and nob one is claiming them is causing us all severe problems."
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, claimed last night the Larne attack was further evidence that the loyalist ceasefire was over.
The Catholic couple, Mr John Shaw (37), and his girlfriend, Ms Edel Burleigh (25), had driven for 20 minutes across Larne in their van with their baby daughter before the grenade type device underneath the vehicle exploded. The couple, deeply shaken but otherwise uninjured, said the attack was clearly sectarian.
It is believed that the attack may have been intended to target another family member who has previously been threatened by the UVF.
The Alliance Party said the attack had been "a blatant attempt at mass murder". The IRSP, the political wing of the INLA, claimed that loyalist paramilitaries intended to "wipe out an entire Catholic family".
Meanwhile, the IRA is believed to have been responsible for yesterday morning's bomb attack on Mountpottinger RUC base in the nationalist Short Strand area of east Belfast. Two coffee jar devices were thrown at the base. No one was injured in the explosions.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said the IRA intended to escalate its violence and to provoke loyalists.
The IRA attack followed three incidents within the past 12 days in which it used horizontal mortars in unsuccessful attempts to kill or injure members of RUC mobile patrols - the last such attack having taken place near Downpatrick at the weekend.
Meanwhile, in what could be a significant development in efforts, to avert a repeat of last year's Drumcree stand off, Sir Patrick Mayhew and the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, had an hour long meeting yesterday with the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition. A spokesman for the residents, Mr Brendan Mac Cionnaith, said the meeting was organised through Mr Hume whom they had met in December to discuss the parades.