THE Ulster Unionist party has withdrawn from the all-party talks while the Drumcree deadlock continues.
Speaking in Drumcree, the party leader, Mr David Trimble, told The Irish Times he had written to Senator George Mitchell saying his party would not be fielding a team at the talks while the situation remained deadlocked.
Asked how long he expected this to be, he said. "It depends on how long it takes the authorities to come to their senses. It is increasingly difficult to avoid the conclusion they have decided on confrontation.
It's not just the thousands of police and army that are here, when a few hundred would have been sufficient, it's also the manner in which they are dealing with the situation."
He said he heard an incident between protesters and police in Loughgall started when a group of police "deliberately charged" protesters.
Asked if it would help calm the situation if he and other Unionist leaders asked people to stay at home, he said. "They would not do so. What we are asking them to do is act under the leadership of the Orange Order."
Referring to the killing of Mr Michael McGoldrick on Sunday night, he said. "If it should turn out to be a sectarian murder, it will be condemned unreservedly." Violence was what he was asking people not to do.