The Ulster Unionist Party has said it will continue its fight against planned reforms of policing in Northern Ireland.

The meeting on Monday night had been called by members of the Ulster Unionist Party's 100-strong executive who are angry at the government's decision to implement the bulk of Chris Patten's proposals on the future of policing.

The meeting was held against the backdrop of a Northern Ireland peace process which is under tremendous strain.

It also came only days before the crucial UUP ruling council meeting on Saturday to review the peace process.

At Monday night's meeting the party's executive passed a resolution expressing its opposition to proposals to change the name and symbols of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and to give Sinn Fein members an input into policing through the establishment of district policing partnership boards.

The meeting was attended by Northern Ireland First Minister and Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble.

In a statement issued after a two-and-a-half-hour long discussion at its headquarters in Belfast's Glengall Street, the party said it was disappointed by the decision of the government to "accept the more controversial recommendations" of the Patten Commission on policing.

It said: "While continuing to oppose changes during the passage of legislation to implement Patten's recommendations, the Ulster Unionist Party will also raise these issues in the course of any review or further inter-party talks and will require them to be satisfactorily resolved."

The anti-agreement MP William Ross emerged from the meeting saying executive members had passed a "very sensible resolution".

He said the UUP was "always opposed to Patten".

Ulster Unionist executive member Jim Rodgers said it was "vitally important" that Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson had a rethink on the proposals to change the name and symbols of the RUC.

Meanwhile, around a dozen women from the loyalist Shankill Road area of Belfast staged a protest outside UUP headquarters where the meeting was being held.

The protesters waved union flags and carried placards. They are waging a campaign to save the RUC.

In January the Secretary of State, Peter Mandelson, announced in the House of Commons that the government was accepting the bulk of the Patten recommendations for reform.

He confirmed the force would lose its royal title as part of the wide-ranging reforms recommended in a review of policing carried out as part of the Good Friday peace agreement.

However, the changes, recommended by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten, have caused widespread anger in unionist circles, where the RUC is seen as a bulwark against terrorism.

Unionists were outraged by many of Patten's recommendations but Sinn Fein said they did not go far enough and demanded the complete disbandment of the RUC.

The Patten report, which was published last September, contains 175 proposals for changes to the force, including cutting the number of RUC officers by around 6,000.

Meanwhile, legislation to suspend the Northern Ireland Assembly amid the deepening crisis over paramilitary arms decommissioning will be rushed through the House of Commons on Tuesday.

The announcement, confirming plans laid by Mr Mandelson last week, means that the political institutions achieved through the peace process will be effectively frozen unless last-ditch talks can find a way through the arms impasse.