Christians in Northern Ireland have responded to the death of Protestant leader David Ervine, who died Monday after a heart attack.

Ervine, 53, headed the province's Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), the political wing of the illegal Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) of which he was once a member.

He was a decisive figure in securing the ceasefire by Protestant paramilitaries in 1994 and was influential in talks that led to 1998's landmark Good Friday peace agreement to end 30 years of sectarian conflict.

The Bishop of Connor, the Rt Rev Alan Harper, said Ervine would be "sorely missed".

"David Ervine was a man of considerable personal courage. He was an articulate and often outspoken advocate of his political convictions and an authentic spokesperson on the needs and aspirations of grass roots loyalist people in Northern Ireland.

"Mr Ervine's own direct experience led him to renounce violent confrontation and embrace dialogue as the only acceptable means of attaining political and social objectives. In this, he was crucially influential among loyalist and paramilitary groups. Here, as elsewhere, David Ervine's leadership, plain speaking and common sense will be sorely missed.

Meanwhile, the director of the Hard Gospel Project, the Rev Earl Storey, said: "The world of politics in Northern Ireland will be poorer. Leadership means having the courage to tell your own people the truth about how things really are. It involves telling your people things that they may not want to hear. He had a quality that is often lacking in politics - courage. He was willing to say things to his own community that they did not necessarily want to hear.

"He had a willingness and honesty to lead his community to places they may have initially been reluctant to go. This is a rare quality at a time when watching your back and fear of your own constituency is almost a defining characteristic of leadership at present. It is the type of leadership on either side that is going to make the difference between reconciliation and division."

Prime Minister Tony Blair paid tribute to Ervine as a man who played a major part in trying to bring peace to Northern Ireland over the last decade, whatever his past.

"Brought up in sectarian politics he ended up being a persistent and intelligent persuader for cross-community partnership and he will be sorely missed," Blair said.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern described Ervine as "courageous and articulate" and said his presence would be missed in the current faltering efforts by London and Dublin to secure Protestant-Catholic power-sharing deal in the province, reports Reuters.

Ervine was a Belfast city councillor and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly who worked for compromise with his nationalist opponents while remaining opposed to a united Ireland.

His stance triggered death threats from both the IRA, which waged a three-decade campaign against British rule, and paramilitaries within his own community and he was forced to move house several times.

Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, said Ervine "made a valuable and important contribution to moving our society away from conflict".

Raised in a staunchly working-class Protestant area of Belfast, Ervine joined the UVF as a teenager in the 1970s and was arrested in 1974 while transporting a bomb.

While in Belfast's notorious Maze Prison he set about educating himself, gaining a degree from the distance-learning Open University and joining the left-wing PUP on his release.

More than 3,600 people were killed in the province's conflict between majority Protestant unionists committed to links with Britain and minority Catholic nationalists who favour a united Ireland.