Leaders of the Ulster Democratic Party travelled to Dublin yesterday for talks with the US Ambassador to Ireland, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith.
Mrs Kennedy Smith asked for the meeting following the weekend UVF hoax bomb alerts at Dublin Airport - seen as a sign of loyalist discontent and as a shot across the bows of the Dublin government.
Dublin ministerial contact with the fringe loyalists ended the February collapse of the IRA ceasefire.
Mr Gary McMichael, a member of the UDP delegation, insisted that the paramilitary UDA was "loo per cent behind" a continued loyalist ceasefire. He said his party - which has close links with the UDA - would "do everything in our power to ensure there is no return to loyalist violence".
He added: "Those whose views we best understand - that is the UDA, the largest paramilitary organisation in Northern Ireland - have indicated they are 100 per cent behind the loyalist ceasefire.
"Certainly we would not wish to see it fall down at the last hurdle before negotiations."