Loyalists today threatened to pull out of peace talks on flashpoint violence over a demands for all organisations to cut links with paramilitaries.
The Ulster Volunteer Force, Red Hand Commando and Ulster Defence Association said they will pull out of negotiations at Belfast's sectarian flashpoints unless the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) admits to flaws in its scathing new report.
With police chiefs preparing to mount a major security operation in an attempt to stop trouble on the streets this summer, the organisations warned order could not be guaranteed without their backing.
"This has created the most serious situation that has existed here since the peace process began," a source close to the paramilitaries said. "The IMC is saying we are not part of society, ignoring the good work we have done.
"Police meet us on a regular basis to help them control the interfaces, but we will just turn our mobiles off."
Their fury was provoked by the commission's damning dossier of paramilitary shootings, beatings and bombings which it said were being carried out by both loyalists and republican paramilitaries.
The British government has agreed to an IMC call for the Progressive Unionists and Sinn Féin political representatives of the UVF and the IRA respectively to be financially punished.
PA