The panel`s report also called on the British Government to appoint an independent inquiry to examine how high up the chain of command collusion went.

Professor Cassel told the Press Association at the Belfast presentation of the report: "Personally I was shocked.

"The British Government has a reputation around the world as one of the leading democracies and one of the longest histories of the rule of law.

"To find this extent of collusion in murders in the 25 incidents we investigated was shocking."

The panel was asked by the Londonderry-based human rights organisation the Pat Finucane Centre to investigate allegations of collusion in 25 loyalist attacks from October 1972 to February 1977 - most of which are linked to a loyalist gang known as the Glenanne group.

Among the incidents they investigated were the May 1974 Dublin Monaghan bombings which claimed 33 lives, the Miami Showband massacre in July 1975 during which three musicians and two members of the Ulster Volunteer Force gang died and the shooting of Catholic policeman Sergeant Joe Campbell in February 1977.

In only one case, the group was unable to reach a verdict on collusion because of conflicting accounts - the murder of 51-year-old driver James Marks and 78-year-old passenger Joseph Toland in a gun attack in Gilford, Co Armagh, on a minibus returning from bingo.

The panel also met members of three organisations representing republican victims of violence - Families Acting for Innocent Relatives, SAVER/NAVER, both in Markethill, Co Armagh, and the WAVE Trauma Centre in Belfast which caters for the victims of loyalist violence too.

Among the stories they heard were the murder of a woman in an acid and petrol bomb attack on a bus in Armagh in 1972, the shooting of a man pulled from a digger in Mullaghbawn and shot dead as he cleaned drains on his farm, the killing of three UDR men when a lorry carrying a 1,000lb bomb rolled into their barracks at Glenanne in 1991 and a South Armagh farmer`s account of the intimidation of Protestants who were driven from their land.

They also heard allegations by at least one former RUC man that the Irish Republic`s police, the Gardai, was not co-operative in bringing to justice IRA fugitives who fled across the border.

While the panel`s remit was to probe collusion in loyalist killings, Professor Cassel confirmed today: "There are some allegations we received of alleged failure of the Garda or the Irish authorities to properly co-operate with law enforcement in cases of violence against loyalists here in Northern Ireland.

"We will certainly be raising that with the Irish Government."

The report called for:

:: Investigations by an independent team into allegations of collusion in murders and attempted murders by loyalists, capable of identifying those involved, examining how high up the chain of command it went and focusing not just on RUC and UDR involvement but also British Army and intelligence agencies;

:: Investigations into murders carried out by republican groups;

:: Full co-operation by paramilitary groups on both sides with credible official investigations into collusion;

:: The publishing of the findings of all investigations, including those by the Historical Enquiries Team which currently plans only to share its findings with victims` families;

:: The state to acknowledge publicly its responsibility in sectarian killings where collusion is established;

:: Public apologies from senior officials to the families of victims of collusion.