Loyalist leaders have not offered the Northern Ireland Office any sign of developing a future political agenda, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said in New York yesterday.
Mr Hain said he gets a "barrage of complaints" when he speaks to loyalists, but they appear unable to follow republicans into democratic politics. Loyalism, he said, needed to ask if it has any purpose outside of gangsterism.
Mr Hain was speaking during a three-day tour of New York and Washington.
"When I get loyalists speaking to me, I get a barrage of complaints but I don't get a future political strategy which, like it or not, republicans have always had. That's why republicans are quite successful and I think the sooner loyalists have a forward agenda, the more success they will have," Mr Hain said.
Mr Hain added that he had made his comments to individual loyalist leaders in Belfast, Lisburn and Ballymena but wanted the loyalist leadership to consider his words.
He was speaking after the UDA announced that it wanted to discuss its future with the Northern Ireland Office and may consider disbanding.
Mr Hain also called on the Orange Order to stop boycotting the Parades Commission, which is soon to have a new chairman and members. "To keep boycotting the Parades Commission, especially a reconstituted Parades Commission, to put a road block up against dialogue, it not a forward agenda. There are too many people trapped in Northern Ireland's past," he said.
Mr Hain said his deputy, David Hanson, would be meeting loyalist leaders next week to discuss the UDA announcement.
Meanwhile, a senior official said the NIO is to appoint an entirely new Parades Commission in response to loyalist violence in September.
The official said interviews were already taking place for a new chairman to replace Sir Anthony Holland, and for the six other positions on the commission, which decides where contentious political and sectarian parades should take place in Northern Ireland.
"We will be appointing a new parades commissioner and interviews taking place for the chair and also six members. They have done a valiant job in difficult situations," the official said, before adding that the Orange Order and loyalists should be left with no excuse to boycott the commission after it is reconstituted.
The decision follows serious loyalist rioting that followed the rerouting of the Whiterock Orange parade in Belfast. Hundreds of loyalists in Belfast and towns across Antrim attacked police and Catholic residents over several days.
This is the biggest shake-up of the Parades Commission since 2000, when a new commission was announced, along with the publication of new recommendations for the body.