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''And I believe that a lead has now been given to the rest of the unionist family throughout this province. The signal has been given clearly.

''Whilst the low turnout has reduced the Ulster Unionist Party vote, the main reason we attribute to the loss of this seat is the Patten Report and the treatment of the RUC by Her Majesty's Government.

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''The Ulster Unionist Party will have to reflect on this result. But more importantly, the Prime Minister and Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson will have to now address the problems unionists have with Patten.''

''South Antrim has spoken - not only for themselves, but I believe it has spoken with a great heart for the people of Northern Ireland and I would say to the Government ignore this message but you ignore it at your peril because democracy is a weapon that this Government will not be able to decommission.''

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''And I would say that it also serves notice to those who misled the unionist population to a vote in the referendum against traditional unionism and today has been a historic day.

The results: The Rev William McCrea (DUP) 11,601 (37.95%); David Burnside (UUP) 10,779 (35.26%, -22.23%); Donovan McClelland (SDLP) 3496 (11.44%, -4.72%); Martin Meehan (SF) 2611 (8.54%, +2.99%); David Ford (Alliance) 2,031 (6.64%,

Mr Trimble, in a statement, blamed the defeat on a protest vote against the Government's treatment of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

He said: ''The vast majority of the unionist population have made a judgment today - a judgment upon the Belfast agreement, that iniquitous agreement that has been the destruction of democracy in our country.

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A jubilant Mr McCrea told the Government after the count at Newtownabbey that a clear signal had been given against the Good Friday Agreement.

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Mr Trimble added that while some progress had been achieved on the issue of decommissioning in recent months, one thing was clear from the by-election result: republican and loyalist paramilitaries would have to begin decommissioning their weapons soon.

DUP candidate the Rev William McCrea, former Mid Ulster MP and gospel singer, took what had been the safest seat of Mr Trimble's Ulster Unionists with an 822 majority.

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Mr Trimble had earlier been rebuffed by the selection as UUP candidate of David Burnside, a London-based businessman, in preference to his own chief-of-staff David Campbell.

The Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party dealt a stunning blow to Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble and the peace process early today when it gained Antrim South in the by-election.

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The result - which increases to three Mr Paisley's group at Westminster - indicates widespread Unionist disillusionment with the peace process and steps up pressure on Mr Trimble's position as UUP leader.

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Mr McCrea, bitter opponent of the Good Friday Agreement, won the constituency including Antrim District and part of Newtownabbey and covering prosperous commuting areas for Belfast - not typical territory for the DUP which did not field a candidate there at the 1997 General Election.

''The message we were given by Unionist voters on the doorstep was that they felt they had to register a protest vote against the Government's treatment of the RUC.

-4.97%); David Collins (NLP) 49 (0.16%, -0.35%); DUP maj 822 (2.69%); electorate 71,047; turnout 30,567 (43.02%, -14.88%).