LOYALIST paramilitaries have drawn up a chilling ''Doomsday'' plan of

action against a British withdrawal from Northern Ireland, it was

claimed last night.

The plan, said to have been drawn up over several years by the Ulster

Defence Association, the largest loyalist paramilitary group, includes

details of religious trends in many parts of the province.

The Belfast-based Sunday Life newspaper published a series of maps

showing four options on what territory the UDA believes it could hold,

what would be given up and what might be fought for.

In essence the border would be redrawn, with Protestants consolidating

themselves in a smaller Ulster in the North-east of the present

province.

The plan allegedly suggests that two or probably three of Northern

Ireland's six counties would be lost, and considers options such as

taking Catholics living in the east of the province hostage as

''bargaining chips'' for the release of Protestants trapped in the

surrendered west.

Neither the Northern Ireland Office nor the security forces would make

any comment on the blueprint. One document, it was claimed, said the

objective would be to ''establish an ethnic Protestant Homeland'' with

adequate forces deployed along a defensive border and the

''consolidation of territory'' as am immediate objective.

The ''Doomsday'' scenario recognises there would be large numbers of

Catholics left within the Protestant homeland and offers three chilling

options on dealing with them -- expulsion, internment, or nullification.

A prominent member of the Rev. Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist

Party, Mr Sammy Wilson, last night described the alleged Doomsday plan

as ''a very valuable return to reality''.