The Ulster Defence Association was given one last chance to stop its violence yesterday by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Dr John Reid.
If there was more UDA-inspired violence in north Belfast overnight, he said, he would sign the order declaring their ceasefire over today.
Dr Reid, however, was accused by the Democratic Unionist Party of letting the Ulster Defence Association "off the hook" after he abandoned plans to declare the paramilitary group's ceasefire to be over.
Dr Reid told reporters yesterday he had called them to Hillsborough castle with the intention of "specifying" the UDA as a group which was not on ceasefire, but had decided not to do this.
The Secretary of State said he had changed his mind because he had been briefed that the UDA had decided to end its campaign of violence.
Dr Reid said he was sceptical about the UDA's word and would judge the group on its actions.
"I give this warning: if there is UDA-inspired violence in Belfast tonight, the UDA will be specified tomorrow.
"If there is a continuation of pipe-bomb attacks and attacks on the security forces, the UDA will be specified. They will be tested every day," he said.
Local politicians were unconvinced by the UDA offer. The DUP justice spokesman, Mr Ian Paisley Jnr, said Dr Reid's decision was a "pathetic opt-out" and accused the British government of presenting "terrorism with a second chance".
"The reality is the UDA has got off the hook because the Government knows that if they specify one paramilitary group, they will have to specify them all," he said.
Sinn FΘin said the decision was remarkable. "This appears to be a case of 'behave yourselves for a few days boys'," said the party's west Belfast MLA, Mr Alex Maskey. "History tells us the UDA is not an organisation which can be believed," he said.
Dr Reid defended his decision, saying that the UDA offer could be fulfilled if the organisation wished to do so. If it was, in fact, genuine, the offer could "significantly ease the position in Belfast and save lives in the community". If violence did continue "we'll be no further back than we were at three o'clock this afternoon," he said.
Dr Reid denied he had communicated his intention to specify the UDA to the group.
"The UDA took the decision [to end its violence] in the absence of knowledge of any statement that I was going to make.
"So it's not the situation that there was blackmail or anything like that," he said.
Dr Reid admitted other paramilitary groups had breached the terms of their ceasefires but he was focusing particularly on the UDA because "in the course of this year, the level, the scale, the numbers and the nature of the violence of the UDA was different from other organisations.
"The sectarian nature, the pipebombs, the murders that took place, the attacks by bombs in front of children, the attacks by bombs and guns on the police, all of that in my view made it different from the other organisations," he said.