There was increasing tension in Northern Ireland last night as fears grew of further violence following the New Year's Eve attack on a public house in north Belfast in which one man died and five others were injured.
The outlawed Loyalist Volunteer Force admitted responsibility, but this was greeted with scepticism in some quarters. There were indications that mainstream loyalist paramilitaries may have played a minor, if not the major, role.
The LVF statement was made in a telephone call to Ulster Television. Using a recognised codeword, the caller said the shooting was carried out by the organisation's west Belfast brigade in retaliation for the death of Billy Wright. It warned of further attacks.
Earlier, the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, had hinted that other loyalists might have had a role in the shooting. "The LVF could be behind this and it could be that they were assisted by others of a paramilitary bent," he said.
Also before the LVF statement, Mr Billy Hutchinson, of the Progressive Unionist Party, political wing of the UVF, spoke of his concern that the attack might have been carried out by a mainstream loyalist paramilitary group, "which one I wouldn't be sure".
The car used in the shooting was stolen in the Shankill Road area and a family reportedly held captive. Mr Hutchinson did not believe the LVF had sufficient support in the area to carry out such actions. "The peace process itself cannot stand a murder from an organisation which is represented around the table," he told BBC Radio Ulster.
Asked why mainstream loyalists would want to avenge the death of Wright, the LVF leader whom they had previously threatened to kill, Mr Hutchinson said: "Irrespective of whether people had agreements or disagreements with Billy Wright, the attack by the INLA within the prison was seen as an attack on the process."
Reiterating his view that the PUP should withdraw from the Stormont talks, Mr Hutchinson nevertheless added: "The only way forward is through political dialogue."
Condemning the shooting, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said: "All of us with responsibility must rededicate ourselves to finding an honourable political settlement in the new year through the talks process."
The Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said if a mainstream loyalist group had breached the Mitchell Principles on the use of force then it created a "very difficult dilemma" for the two governments.
"The exclusion of parties for breach of the Mitchell Principles could make the achievement of `sufficient consensus' procedurally impossible under the existing ground rules. But if a choice has to be made between fudging the Mitchell Principles and changing the ground rules, there can be no doubt that the Mitchell Principles must take priority."
The Press Association reported a leading member of Sinn Fein, Mr Gerry Kelly, declaring shortly after the outrage: "The peace process is shattered." However, in a statement later, Mr Kelly said such attacks were designed to subvert the peace process and must not be allowed to "drag us back into the abyss from which we have come".
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said the peace process was coming under attack on two fronts. "We have those unionist and loyalist parties inside the talks process attempting to prevent substantive negotiation from within. And we have the loyalist murder gangs complementing this intransigence from outside the process."
In a statement, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, political wing of the INLA, the group which shot Wright, issued a statement blaming the Ulster Freedom Fighters, a cover-name for the UDA, for the public house attack.
In a separate development, the Democratic Unionist leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, said he had met the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, for an hour on Wednesday.