Clearing up was under way today after the latest bout of sectarian street-fighting in trouble-scarred east Belfast.

Political efforts to stem the rising tide of violence at sectarian flashpoints across Belfast were intensifying today with a number of high-profile meetings following a night of further violence in the city.

Violence along an East Belfast peaceline will not end unless the security forces stop treating a nationalist neighbourhood as a no-go area, Democratic Unionist MP Peter Robinson claimed today.

Gunfire was reported in Belfast tonight as police and army were drafted in to keep rival sectarian mobs apart at two of the city’s troublespots.

Reports of an explosion in a riot-ravaged part of east Belfast were today being investigated by police.

An independent team of observers is needed to establish who is responsible for triggering street clashes along one of Belfast’s sectarian interfaces, it was claimed today.