The Progressive Unionist Party has said it would await a British government response to its complaints about the peace process before deciding on whether to withdraw from the Stormont talks.
A seven-strong delegation from the PUP, the UVF's political wing, held crisis talks with the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, at Belfast City Hall last night. The British government tried to persuade the party not to pull out of the talks that restart on January 12th.
The PUP raised the issue of loyalist prisoner releases and expressed anger that "concessions were continually being granted to republicans".
Afterwards its spokesman, Mr David Ervine, said the initiative now lay with Dr Mowlam and the PUP's decision would be influenced by her response to its concerns. Dr Mowlam described the meeting as productive. "I will certainly go away and think very seriously about the points they made," she said.
Loyalist dissatisfaction with the peace process intensified yesterday when three men were arrested in the Shankill area of Belfast. They are being questioned about a paramilitary-style display and rally at Belfast City Hall in October, commemorating the third anniversary of the loyalist ceasefire. Mr John White of the Ulster Democratic Party, the UDA's political wing, said there was growing disillusionment among loyalists about the peace process. He said he spent yesterday speaking to members of the Ulster Freedom Fighters - the UFF is the UDA's cover-name.
"They are saying that there is a great loss of confidence in the whole peace process. They see a government continuously pandering to Sinn Fein/IRA in terms of concession after concession," he said.
Loyalists yesterday also expressed discontent after the Northern Ireland Office confirmed that another IRA prisoner had been transferred from England to the North last week. Patrick Martin (36) was moved from Belmarsh jail to the Maze prison in Co Antrim.
Martin (36), from Belfast, is serving 35 years for conspiracy to cause explosions in London. He was one of six men convicted of trying to black out part of England by bombing electricity supply stations last year.
Mr David Ervine of the PUP said "it just goes on and on, meeting all the requirements of Sinn Fein". While the PUP demanded action on loyalist prisoners, the North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, indicated there would be little on offer immediately. "Releases will come on the basis of when prisoners are due for release, that is the current situation."
Some of the North's most notorious paramilitary members are among 161 prisoners who will get 10 days' Christmas leave from the Maze today. They include Paul Kavanagh and Thomas Quigley, who were convicted of bombing Chelsea barracks, and the Brighton bomber, Patrick Magee.
In his Christmas message yesterday the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, warned that the British and Irish governments, the SDLP and Sinn Fein were "driving the so-called peace process on a road which can only bring disaster to our province".
He said that "those who believe that truth cannot be bought at the expense of peace are repudiated and rejected".
He predicted that "murderers and gangsters" would soon be let "loose on our streets" with "a blood-bath of a dimension unimaginable and little hope of such a terrorist Armageddon being defeated".
In his Christmas message the Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, Dr Patrick Walsh, said all the political parties in the North needed to concentrate on reaching an agreement.
He said the IRA ceasefire in July had occurred amidst "an atmosphere of despair, of hopelessness, of helplessness". Since then there had been moments of both hope and caution, he added.
The failure of the parties last week to agree on the major topics for the talks when they resume was disappointing, he said. "There is a need for a determined, sustained effort by all parties to reach agreement. There is so much at stake. Peace is at stake, lives are at stake. Let us pray for those who are struggling to build peace, and we all know that it is a struggle."