The Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, is expected in the next 48 hours to declare the end of ceasefire with the main loyalist paramilitaries as the Belfast riots enters the third day, UK media reported.

Tensions remained high in Belfast last night as Protestants blocked main commuter routes out of the city during the evening rush hour after a weekend of violence that saw at least 50 police officers injured as loyalist gangs opened fire on them.

The widespread violence in Belfast, County Antrim and County Down appears to have convinced Mr Hain that the government can no longer recognise the Ulster Volunteer Force's claim to have suspended its campaign. He is also under pressure to impose sanctions on the Ulster Defence Association.

"Those responsible must be brought to justice. I will support the police in any action they take to do that and in the meantime I think everybody from unionist communities will be absolutely appalled at the way paramilitary groups are really acting in a gangster type way." said Peter Hain.

"The evidence I have seen is absolutely clear cut." he said. As a result he would be making an announcement within a few days, Guardian reported.

Yesterday 16 people appeared in Belfast courts in connection with the riots, which began on Saturday night and reignited on Sunday night, according to the reports of Telegraph. The charges ranged from hijacking vehicles to attempted murder.

The rampage followed British authorities' refusal Saturday to permit the Orange Order, Northern Ireland's major Protestant brotherhood, to parade as they usually do each year along the boundary of Catholic west Belfast to an isolated Orange hall.

But analysts also agree that the march provided a pretext for Northern Ireland's two major outlawed Protestant paramilitary groups, the Ulster Defense Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, to launch a pre-planned rebellion, CCTV reported.

Mitchell Reiss, US President George W. Bush's envoy to Northern Ireland, accused Protestant leaders of making bogus excuses for rioters.

"I think all of us are pretty disappointed with the abdication of responsibility by many (Protestant) unionist leaders," Reiss was quoted as saying by AP in Belfast.

"No political party, and certainly no responsible political leadership, deserves to serve in a government unless it cooperates and supports fully and unconditionally the police, and calls on its supporters to do so." he said.

(Xinhua News Agency via agencies September 13, 2005)