Ritchie under pressure from UDA to back down

The UDA is believed to be planning to ask the Decommissioning Body to report to both the British and Irish governments and the North's social development minister on their discussions.

The minister, Margaret Ritchie of the SDLP, has given the UDA a deadline of October 9th to begin actual decommissioning or she will withdraw a £1.2m (€1.7m) funding package.