During his meeting today with Security Minister Jane Kennedy over the continuing civil unrest in Belfast, Sir Reg Empey called on the government to "get their act together" and end the interface violence in north and east of the city.

During the meeting, the senior UUP representative invited Ms Kennedy to go to Cluan Place and Short Strand and gauge the seriousness of the problem for herself. He also called for CCTV to be placed in Cluan Place, which he claimed had been "largely destroyed" as a result of a republican "onslaught". He also reiterated his call for a permanent police presence in the Short Strand and loyalist areas.

Sir Reg said: “Prime Minister Tony Blair is talking about going to war with Saddam Hussein and yet his government cannot control two streets in Belfast. The government have got to get their act together on this, sooner or later, if it's allowed to continue, some lunatic will shoot somebody and there will be a fatality and that is what we want to avoid." He added that it was likely that Sinn Fein was orchestrating the violence on the nationalist side to "undermine the police".

Sir Reg also said that the UUP are set to convene a meeting later this week of councillors and assembly members in east and north Belfast.

He stated: “We will not participate in any Sinn Fein road show that they may be trying to put forward, but we will be coming up with our own ideas and we will be putting those forward."

While Sir Reg was at the Castle Buildings meeting with Ms Kennedy, Sinn Fein's councillor for the Short Strand area, Joe O'Donnell, claimed that loyalist mobs had attacked workmen repairing nationalist homes.

"Not only are these people intent on wrecking the homes of nationalists but they are also intent on blocking any repair work being done. The residents of Clandeboye are living in intolerable conditions, coming under nightly attack," he said.

(GMcG)