Speculation about threat to leadership is dismissed

Mr David Trimble has dismissed suggestions of a threat to his leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party, and reiterated that the party will continue to be involved in the Mitchell review of the Belfast Agreement at Stormont.

His party's 120-member ruling executive yesterday strongly rejected the Patten report on policing. A special party committee, chaired by the security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis, was formed to devise an alternative to the Patten proposals.

There was speculation that anti-agreement members, boosted by Mr John Taylor's loss of faith in the agreement, would exploit yesterday's executive meeting - arranged to consider the party response to the Patten document - to undermine Mr Trimble's leadership and to force a withdrawal from the review.

This was further bolstered by comments from the Ulster Unionist MP for West Tyrone, Mr William Thompson, who yesterday accused Mr Trimble of "betrayal" and called for his resignation.

But after the meeting Mr Trimble said his position was "rock solid". Those who accused him of betrayal were "wrong". He said that around the margins of the meeting there might have been some discussion of his leadership but there was no "serious" comment or challenge. No one called for his resignation.

Mr Trimble said the party would remain in the review on the terms stated last week that it would have no dealings with Sinn Fein or the loyalist parties until the review chairman, Mr George Mitchell, had established from them that they were truly committed to democracy.

Mr Trimble would make no comment on why Mr Taylor had refused to engage in the review. Mr Taylor did not attend yesterday's meeting.

Mr Trimble said the executive passed a motion describing the Patten report as "deeply flawed and objectionable to the greater number of law-abiding people in Northern Ireland". The executive found that the proposals to change the RUC name and symbols were "designed to undermine the identification of the RUC as the Northern Ireland element of British policing". The executive also described as "insulting to the people of the UK as a whole" the proposal to appoint a foreign commissioner to oversee the implementation of the Patten proposals.

The motion complained that the recommendations would damage the effectiveness of policing and "create a channel for the involvement of terrorist organisations in policing".

The executive formed a working party of members with security, policing or legal knowledge to produce a "detailed study of policing with alternative proposals to the Patten report".

Chaired by Mr Maginnis, its other members are: Assembly members Mr Michael McGimpsey and Sir Reg Empey; Police Authority member Mr Trevor Wilson; Ms Arlene Foster, a solicitor and member of the anti-agreement Union First pressure group; and Lady Sylvia Hermon, wife of the former RUC chief constable, Sir John Hermon.