THE Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble, said yesterday it would be a disaster if there was a return to violence by a splinter loyalist paramilitary group.
He was commenting on a statement in the Belfast Sunday Life newspaper, by an unnamed organisation, which warned IRA and Sinn Fein members they would be "executed if and when the opportunity arose".
Speaking on the BBC Breakfast with Frost programme on the eve of consultation talks with the Irish and British governments at Stormont, Mr Trimble said there had been a hint of a return to violence "several months ago" by dissident elements from both the UVF and the UDA, but that they had been persuaded not to combine.
"I hope this new group - if it exists - can also be dissuaded from acting in the way that they threatened which would be quite wrong and a disaster at this stage. The last thing we want to see is any violence from loyalists. Whatever the circumstances, whatever the provocation from the IRA I would appeal to them not to react."
The UUP leader also spoke of his concern that the recent IRA bombs in London would not be the last and that more would be planted in order to "blow the government away from its requirement that the IRA sign up to the Mitchell principles".
The likelihood of a splinter group within the loyalist paramilitaries was received with "some considerable seriousness and on the other hand with some degree of scepticism" by the Sinn Fein ard chomhairle member, Mr Martin McGuinness, who said "we've heard so many types of these stories before".
Mr McGuinness renewed Sinn Fein's call on the British government to drop the "preconditions" to its full participation in the talks process. He said the consultation process at Stormont was "indicative that the British government is harking back to the old politics of exclusion, which is a disaster at this stage".
Mr McGuinness told the Breakfast with Frost programme: "Sinn Fein is not threatening anybody. Sinn Fein is totally and absolutely committed to peaceful and democratic methods of moving forward. The big concern within the broad nationalist family is that there is a very determined attempt by the British government and unionist parties to drive us all on towards an internal settlement within the North."
The leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, Mr Gary McMichael, said he would be looking closely at the reports of a splinter loyalist group resuming violence in the North. "It is surprising anything like this could develop without us knowing anything about it. The only people with the right to alter or revoke the CLMC (Combined Loyalist Military Command) ceasefire is the CLMC itself.
"This group appears to make it clear that there is no UVF or UFF involvement."
Mr McMichael also hinted at difficulties for the IRA if the splinter group is genuine. The necessity, Mr McMichael said, was to establish if the splinter group was "bona fide. If they are genuine it makes it more difficult for the Provisionals to renew their ceasefire." He also insisted that his party had "absolutely no information" concerning a splinter group.