Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble has appealed directly to the UVF, UDA and Red Hand Commando to try to ensure that there is relative peace on the streets of Northern Ireland this summer.
Mr Trimble met loyalist political representatives and loyalist paramilitary leaders in Belfast yesterday urging that they use their influence to maintain calm at the sectarian interfaces during the so-called summer marching season.
Mr Trimble warned that summer violence could wreck any prospects of a political breakthrough. He also called on republican leaders to reciprocate any moves by loyalists to dampen down tensions.
Mr Trimble added that republicans should use June to prepare the ground for an end to all IRA activity so that assembly elections could take place in the autumn, followed by the restoration of devolution.
"What the republican movement should be doing is to spend June organising the acts of completion that they can undertake, and put in place in September, in order to have a prospect for the resumption of the assembly in October," he said.
"If that preparation is not put in now, then there will be difficulty with the timetable in the autumn. I hope that this time, we will have people doing their preparation, getting things in place now, so that we can have progress in the autumn, and not be running things into barriers at the beginning of November in the way that they did in March and April," added Mr Trimble.
Before yesterday's meeting Mr Trimble said last year's disturbances in Belfast contributed to the political crisis that developed in the autumn. "Let us see can we have a peaceful summer in order to contribute to positive political developments in the autumn.
"If we find interfaces heated up, people will draw conclusions and republicans could do themselves enormous damage if they don't do their bit. But we need to see the other bit done by loyalists and that's something I will be reflecting on with loyalists," he said yesterday morning before the meeting.
Mr Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, who attended the meeting, said it was of vital importance that unionists of all persuasions unite to show leadership and direct communities away from the scourge of interface violence.
Mr Tommy Kirkham of the Ulster Political Research Group, which is linked to the UDA, said the UDA would be issuing a statement urging loyalists to stay out of trouble and to allow the Police Service of Northern Ireland to police the flashpoints.
Sinn Féin's policing spokesman Mr Gerry Kelly welcomed efforts to ensure a calm summer. It was vital that the current political vacuum was not filled by the type of summer violence witnessed in the past.
"What would be a positive move is if we can be guaranteed peace throughout the summer because people in north Belfast, east Belfast and elsewhere have not had the luxury of that over the last three years," he added.