Loyalist political representatives have held talks with the Lord Mayor of Belfast, Sinn Fein’s Mr Alex Maskey, in a bid to quell the street violence along the city's sectarian interfaces.
Members of the Ulster Political Research Group (UPRG), which provide political advice to the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association, met Mr Maskey as part of his effort to set up a working group to tackle sectarianism in the city.
Mr Maskey, who described the meeting as "significant", said: "I would hope we would meet again sometime soon to explore a number of ideas and continue our discussion on how we could sort out the interface violence because it is unacceptable for people living in those communities.
"It was a long meeting and our priority now is to get the working group on sectarianism set up. I will be having discussions with the trade unions, churches, community relations people and the political parties towards that end.
"Today's meeting was a breakthrough because there was meaningful dialogue. We want a format or structure which will deal in the short term with the problems of sectarian violence on the ground and in the long term will come up with a strategy to tackle sectarianism," he added
The West Belfast MLA said he was also encouraged by the response of a variety of individuals and organisations to the city councils initiative to tackle bigotry and violence.
Today's meeting took place after security forces defused pipe bombs in east and south Belfast.
It also followed a weekend in which republican and loyalist gangs clashed in the Short Strand district and nationalists protested in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast over a march that passed through their area by the loyalist Apprentice Boys.
John White, a spokesman for the UPRG, also welcomed the meeting and said it was important that a structure was put in place to deal with sectarian street violence.
"This arose out of the recent rally outside Belfast City Hall and the City Council trying to set up a committee to deal with sectarian issues," he said.
"I think particularly the council and other politicians have failed in the past on how to resolve these issues."
Mr White warned that sectarian violence on a street level had the capacity to undermine all the conflict resolution work that had taken place in Northern Ireland.
He said loyalists were determined to bring about an end to the violence in flashpoint areas. PA