The Ulster Volunteer Force has claimed that the IRA has put its ceasefire commitment under "adverse strain".

The loyalist group's statement said: "The words and actions of the republican movement have constantly created instability for the people of Northern Ireland. Their new year statement displayed total arrogance, amid a blind refusal to accept any modicum of complicity for the current stalemate. Such patent intransigence conveys an implicit threat to the peace process."