Northern Ireland Chief Constable Hugh Orde has restated his commitment to fighting paramilitary violence.

Speaking at the launch of a crime prevention clinic in Belfast on Sunday, he said the risk from both loyalist and republican groups remained high.

But he said the Police Service of Northern Ireland was succeeding in tracking down those responsible.

"The evidence speaks for itself. The state of violence is quite high at the moment," he said.

'Live devices seized'

"We have officers on the streets 24 hours a day to make sure we minimise that and arrest people. And we have been arresting people.

"Earlier in the week I was in Newry where officers had arrested people and we have recovered live devices."

In the operation on the County Armagh side of Newry on Wednesday, the police seized two under-car booby trap bombs.

They said they had prevented a major bomb attack by dissident republicans.

'Rising threat'

And on Sunday the police charged a leading north Belfast loyalist Andre Shoukri with having a firearm with intent to endanger life following an operation when a car was stopped in Rathcoole.

However, Mr Orde recently took up the chief constable's post at a time of rising loyalist and republican paramilitary activity which is increasing tension both in the wider community and among the political parties.

A dispute last week between members of the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and Loyalist Volunteer Force led to the murder of an LVF member and the attempted murder of a UDA member.

And the police have been struggling, with stretched resources, to contain both sectarian street disturbances and attacks on homes in north, west and east Belfast.

Political disquiet

On Sunday a police officer was seriously injured on the head when his police patrol came under attack in west Belfast while attempting to arrest a man for suspected drink driving.

It was the latest in a series of similar attacks on police patrols in the north and west of the city.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's first minister and the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has said he will collapse the province's devolved government by 18 January if the republican movement can not prove it is committed to peace.

Making the announcement at a meeting of his party's ruling council on Saturday, Mr Trimble also called on the government to do more to combat both the loyalist and republican threat.