UUP will push for tighter security

The Ulster Unionist Party says it will press Tony Blair for tighter street security at their meeting today.

James Cooper, the chairman of the Ulster Unionist Party, said: "We will be pressing Tony Blair to give a much firmer commitment to upholding law and order on the streets of Northern Ireland, the continuing breakdown of which has caused the crisis in the peace process.

"Paramilitaries have to be stopped. We cannot have hoodlums on the streets while police stand off and watch them. We need effective security measures - measures which will restore some type of confidence that the process can work."