Trimble exudes the confidence of a leader waiting for power

David Trimble is ready for power. He has already taken over Mo Mowlam's office at Stormont. When I was there last year to interview the Northern Secretary, she kicked off her shoes, curled one foot underneath her on the armchair and held forth in typically blunt fashion on the issues of the day.

David Trimble, too, can be blunt when it suits him, but at other times he takes refuge in subtlety and nuance. He has been walking a tightrope and now, at last, his final goal of First Minister in a functioning Northern Ireland government is, to borrow one of his own favourite phrases, "tantalisingly close". All that stands in his way is the continuing dispute over paramilitary weapons.

On the surface at least, he is confident it will be all right on the night, the IRA will decommission and an executive will be formed. He is not apparently fazed by the signal from Sinn Fein's Mitchel McLaughlin in the past week that the IRA would not give up any weapons. "Well he'll continue to say that until five minutes after they do," says Trimble. "I wouldn't regard what they say now as being a reliable indicator as to whether it's going to happen or not."

The republicans will decommission because, at the end of the day, they have to, says Trimble. "Why did they agree to the Belfast Agreement last year if they weren't going to do it, because they knew it was part of it."

Getting rid of the guns was implicit in the process: "For one reason or another, it's been pushed down the line, but it can't be pushed any further. We've gone as far as we possibly can without it."

But what were the implications if the IRA failed to oblige?

"Well, there are obviously serious implications for the position of Sinn Fein within this [process]. They won't be part of an executive. The question then is, will there be an executive? And that's what people will have to focus their minds on."

What would his own position be in such circumstances? Was he going to walk away? "No. We're still trying to implement the agreement and will continue to try but it's back to Tony Blair's position on May 16th, 1997 of saying to Sinn Fein that the settlement train is leaving, we want you on the train - but it's leaving anyway.

"Now, that's our position: this process is going to move, we want this process to move, we want it to move with Sinn Fein, but if they won't make the necessary action to get on board then we're going to have to see if we can move it anyway."

I point out that the Secretary of State is due to present a Standing Order to Lord Alderdice as Initial Presiding Officer, to permit the implementation of the d'Hondt system of allocating ministries to the parties in accordance with their representation in the Assembly.

Trimble believes this will happen very soon: "I expect the necessary Standing Order to be put in place in the course of the next week."

He outlines the chain of events as he sees them: "Some time after the Standing Order being put in place, the next step would be for the Assembly to meet for the purpose of forming an executive and applying the d'Hondt formula. Now the timing of that second stage is at present uncertain. We hope it will be March 10th and as far as we're concerned, everything will be ready for it to happen on March 10th."

March 10th is of course the "appointed day" for the devolution of powers, so was he saying the Assembly would meet on that date? "No, what I'm saying as far as we're concerned - everything would be done to facilitate that."

His position, in essence, is that it all depends on the weapons issue: "Whether progress can be made on that day is not entirely in my hands because I can't deliver paramilitary decommissioning, which we would like to see happening and without which we won't be able to make progress as originally intended."

THERE has been great interest in the UUP leader's tactics in the event that the IRA has not decommissioned and Sinn Fein seeks inclusion in the new executive. What would he do? Trimble is cagey: "Well, if we're not in a position to make progress on the 10th then obviously we will avoid the process crashing - and I don't expect it to crash on the 10th. But let's focus on the positives and what we're trying to achieve, that's the important thing. The important thing is that we're trying to create the conditions where power can be transferred to this institution (he means Parliament Buildings, where we are sitting), where an executive can be formed, and we hope that that will happen on or about the 10th. For that to happen it is necessary for paramilitaries to start the process of decommissioning, which we hope they will do."

So would he spell out the minimum the IRA has to do for him to agree to Sinn Fein membership of an executive? "Well, it's what we said all along - it has to be a credible and verifiable beginning of a process of decommissioning. Verification is essentially in the hands of De Chastelain's commission. We will take their word for the fact that the weapons being decommissioned came from paramilitary sources and so on. With the verification procedures there, that should be OK. Credible means that we're not dealing with a token gesture. It also means that we have the beginning of a process, and that it is not just a one-off, but the beginning of something which will continue so that the agreement's requirement that total disarmament be completed within the course of the next 15 months [can be met]."

Would this gesture need to be televised? "Well that is obviously highly desirable." In broad terms, he believes Gen de Chastelain "could have a significant influence on the development of events".

Trimble has spoken previously of "parking" the process if there were no decommissioning. Would he be putting a motion before the Assembly to exclude Sinn Fein from the executive?

"Well there are a number of possibilities - the question of debating exclusion is one, the question of parking - and parking is infinitely preferable to crashing - is another. But I would prefer to focus on our preference, our first option, which is that things go ahead. Now if things don't go ahead, that's a different situation and we may have to look at other possibilities which we've mentioned too and there may be others which we haven't at present anticipated. But the focus now - up to March 10th and even beyond if it's necessary - should be on the first option."

He led a delegation of his party to a meeting with a group from Sinn Fein on February 17th and he confirmed that contact had continued subsequent to that date but he could not say whether the meetings had been productive or not. "That remains to be seen." He plays down recent speculation that he would be quite happy to leave public life if circumstances so decreed, but he does not dismiss it completely. He acknowledges that a Channel 4 documentary "might have given people the impression that I desperately wanted out - which wouldn't be a fair reflection on the situation". But he affirms that he does not want to spend the rest of his working life as a politician:

"I had one career for 20 years in academia. I'm now coming up to 10 years in full-time politics. I'll certainly give it another wee while, I won't say how long, but I'd like to have time left to do something else."