MR GARY McMichael, the leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, which has links to loyalist paramilitaries, said the shooting was a demonstration of Sinn Fein's "so called peace strategy".
He said it was a premeditated attack and a distinctive feature of the IRA. All the parties in the talks had to redouble their efforts he said, adding the British government must face its responsibilities.
The leader of the UK Unionist Party, Mr Bob McCartney, said the shooting "bodes ill for the continuance of the loyalist ceasefire". He said that a "sniper death is very much a predetermined and deliberate act".
By late evening, the IRA had not admitted responsibility for the shooting of the soldier but a local Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Danny Kennedy, was in no doubt. It was a "very worrying new feature of the IRA campaign".
The deputy leader of the SDLP, Mr Seamus Mallon, said it was inevitable, given the level of violence in recent weeks, that lives would be lost.
"This shooting seems to have been a calculated, well planned murder and the distinctive pattern of a single sniper shot would point to highly trained paramilitary involvement of the type we have seen for so many years in south Armagh."
