Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain today said he would not be rushed into any quick-fix judgments on the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force’s ceasefire.

Northern Ireland’s most senior policeman Hugh Orde was today challenged to acknowledge his officers made mistakes in allowing loyalist paramilitaries to take over a Belfast housing estate where families were forced to flee their homes.

The SDLP is urging the British government to review the UVF ceasefire following the murder of two men in Belfast in the past two weeks.