Police tonight rejected the loyalist Ulster Defence Association's denials that it is orchestrating a vicious campaign of pipe bombings on Catholic families in Northern Ireland.
The Royal Ulster Constabulary dismissed the UDA's claim that it has no involvement in the 51 attacks carried out across the province so far this year.
Nationalists also moved to reject the statement by the terror organisation's ruling inner council.
SDLP Assembly member for North Belfast Mr Alban Maginness said: "It is frankly an unbelievable statement which no reasonably informed person can accept."
And Sinn Féin's Mr Conor Murphy insisted the UDA ceasefire was over, saying: "They are now trying to cover their tracks by telling lies. Nobody believes them."
The UDA leadership, comprising the heads of each of its six province-wide brigades, said it was breaking its silence to call for an end to the wave of intimidation on Catholic homes in Belfast and towns across Co Antrim, Co Derry and Co Armagh.
Although the inner council admitted the UDA has lost faith in the Belfast Agreement, it stressed the group remains committed to peace.
The brigadiers said that the organisation had established that no individual members had been involved in the ongoing campaign.
The latest incident came yesterday when a four-year-old girl picked up a pipe bomb in the garden of her Springfield Road home in nationalist west Belfast.
Along with the bombings police have seized component parts for a further 34 devices, including 11 at an explosives factory in a north Belfast flat on Sunday, which are being linked to the rival Ulster Volunteer Force.
Calling for whoever is behind the bombings and shootings to stop, the UDA leadership claimed the group has been used as a flag of convenience for those involved.
The leaders said they had met General John de Chastelain, head of the decommissioning body, during the Christmas period to tell him the UDA ceasefire remained intact.
Police claims that the UDA is fragmenting were also denied, with the terror group insisting that its inner council remains intact.
But as it believed Northern Ireland is under threat from both dissident and mainstream republican groupings, the UDA said it was constantly reviewing the situation.
Mr John White, chairman of the Ulster Democratic Party, the UDA's political wing, said the denials vindicated his view that the UDA are not involved in the pipe bomb attacks.
"This also sends a signal to whoever is involved that they should stop; they have no support in the loyalist community."
PA