The future of the Belfast Agreement is in doubt following David Trimble¿s concessions to hardliners in his party. Agreeing to an immediate end to co-operation with the joint North-South administrative body, David Trimble has moved closer to his rival Jeffrey Donaldson's hardline position on government with Sinn Fein.
Facing the biggest challenge to his leadership since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement peace deal, Mr Trimble agreed to sanctions against Sinn Fein and to fulfil a course of action adopted by the party executive which is a combination of motions put forward to the council by himself and anti-Agreement MP Jeffrey Donaldson.
Sources close to the meeting of the 860-member Ruling Council of the Ulster Unionist Party said that Trimble's main hardline critic, Jeffrey Donaldson, had agreed to Trimble's compromise plan for three months of talks to assess the state of the peace process.
The party set a deadline of January 18 to pull out of the north's power-sharing executive if the Unionist Party are not happy with Sinn Fein.
If, in the UUP's eyes, nothing has changed by that time, its party ministers would then esign.
Lagan Valley MP Jeffrey Donaldson, proposed the immediate withdrawal of UUP involvement in the North-South intergovernmental arrangements involving Stormont and Irish Government ministers.
An immediate meeting would be sought with the Prime Minister Tony Blair to press for the exclusion of Sinn Fein.
If the Government did not act, the UUP would pull out its ministers from the Executive at a time of its own choosing.
Furthermore, if the British government "capitulated" to republican demands on implementing the police reforms then the party would withdraw from the Northern Ireland Policing Board.
Reports from inside the hall said that Mr Donaldson's speech had gone down well with the delegates.
A source said Mr Trimble's presentation was received coolly.
Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionists, dismissed the proposals as a stunt. He said: 'It's very much `here we go again'. There would be no Ulster Unionist Party council meeting today if it wasn't for the pressure applied by the DUP.
'It is only the fear of electoral defeat at the hands of the DUP that has prompted them into action. 'It's the same old stunt again attempting to make the people of Northern Ireland believe that they are getting tough.' Mr Robinson said the UUP was confused, divided and motivated by self-preservation and self-interest. 'It can do nothing to preserve unionism. Indeed, it will be in difficulty preserving itself,' he added.
Today's meeting comes as violence in the North continues. Earlier this month, Belfast's most senior police officer, Mr Alan McQuillan reiterated his claims about both IRA and UVF involvement in violence, but stressed: "The significant majority of that has come from loyalist paramilitary groups."
He said much loyalist violence was directed against Catholics but also against the police and members of the British army.