A policeman was taken to hospital with burns to the face and hands after a Land Rover was hit by a petrol bomb.

Two people were arrested.

Trouble erupted at about 0200 BST on Sunday when a masked man hijacked a van in the Donegall Pass area.

Firefighters were called to put out car fires

It was set on fire and used to block the road.

People in a nearby restaurant had to run away from an angry mob, and the car of a customer was destroyed after being set on fire.

Police Land Rovers came under attack from men armed with catapults and petrol bombs as they tried to contain the violence.

As the fire service tried to deal with several burning cars the security forces cordoned off the loyalist area at both ends of the Donegall Pass.

Police later seized two crates of petrol bombs at Walnut Street.

IRA involvement

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams is to discuss the violence with Prime Minister Tony Blair at a meeting in London on Monday.

He will be accompanied at the Downing Street meeting by party colleague Martin McGuinness.

Mr Blair is expected to tell the republican leaders that the government has clear evidence of IRA involvement in recent shootings which have left at least seven people injured, and that it must stop immediately.

Sunday's trouble came at the end of a weekend of violence in parts of the city.

Worrying

Meanwhile, the Bishop of Down and Dromore has said the church has a role to play in east Belfast.

The right Reverend Harold Miller said the two communities needed to understand each other.

"That wall has a devastating effect on the psychology of people," he said.

"On the other side of the wall people are almost de-personalised. They become simply the enemy.

"Somehow or other, and it is going to be a long, hard process, we have to begin to interpret the two communities to each other."

On Saturday, a Catholic school in east Belfast was damaged in an arson attack.

Fires were started and flammable liquid poured into an art room and corridor at Our Lady and St Patrick's College in Kingsway.

There is obviously still activity, orchestration of violence by paramilitaries on all sides, and that is very worrying

John Reid Secretary of State

A petrol bomb was also thrown into the building during the attack.

There were also attacks on houses in Belfast and County Antrim.

Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid said on Sunday there had been a very worrying involvement and orchestration of recent violence by paramilitaries on all sides.

He expressed concern at the "general lack of confidence" in the peace process in the province.

"Enormous efforts have been spent on moving the peace process forward, there have been enormous benefits," he said.

"But there is obviously still activity, orchestration of violence by paramilitaries on all sides, and that is very worrying."