THE DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, has called for Sinn Fein to be banned following continuing IRA attacks on the RUC and British army.
Mr Robinson was speaking after a policeman and British soldier sustained shrapnel wounds in an IRA bomb attack in the Short Strand area of east Belfast. The DUP deputy leader said that words were no longer enough to confront republicans.
The ambush proved that the IRA could never be part of any negotiating process, he said, and demanded that Sinn Fein be denied access to the media by a new broadcasting ban.
The Sinn Fein ardchomhairle member, Mr Martin McGuinness, said that Mr Robinson's remarks showed that the DUP had learned nothing.
"The reality is that the situation requires inclusive talks, not calls like Mr Robinson's. The policies of marginalisation and isolation have failed," he said.
A man who was arrested in a security operation following Thursday night's attack in east Belfast was still being questioned by police yesterday.
The device, which exploded in Strand Walk, is understood to have contained five lb of Semtex and to have been packed with shrapnel. It was concealed in an alleyway and detonated by command wire when the patrol passed.
The Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Reg Empey, said the attack was a deliberate attempt to provoke loyalists into retaliating against Catholics.
Mr David Ervine, of the Progressive Unionist Party, said loyalists were angry at the IRA. But he hoped that his community would "sit tight" and that the talks process would continue in June, leaving Sinn Fein behind if necessary.
Sinn Fein has condemned house raids carried out in the Beechmount area of west Belfast yesterday. A party councillor, Mr Tom Hartley, said "This type of heavyhanded bully boy approach lends nothing useful to the current situation."
Meanwhile, a coffee jar bomb was defused in the Poleglass area of west Belfast yesterday.
Several hundred rounds of ammunition were uncovered by the RUC during a search of a derelict house in east Belfast on Thursday. No arrests were made after the bullets were found at Langholme on the Tullycarnet estate in the Dundonald area.
. Police found a suspect device in Woolworth's shop in Castle Street, Strabane, last night. They asked keyholders of other commercial businesses in the town to return to their premises and check them.