Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble and his party critics remain bitterly divided tonight as efforts to find common ground over power sharing with Sinn Féin failed today.
As Mr Trimble prepares for a potentially explosive meeting of the UUP's 860-member ruling council tomorrow, there are signals that hardliners will try to force him to agree to imposing sanctions on Sinn Féin amid concern about ongoing IRA activity.
At the last meeting of the council Mr Trimble garnered just 55 per cent support for his leadership.
Hardliners led by Ulster Unionist MPs Mr Jeffrey Donaldson and Mr David Burnside are expected to propose the UUP introduce a series of "graduated sanctions" against Sinn Fein at tomorrow's meeting.
As today's meeting between Mr Trimble and his critics broke up in Hillsborough, Co Down, without agreement on a compromise motion, South Antrim MP Mr David Burnside told PA News the party could not afford a "do nothing" policy.
"What is required is a series of phased sanctions against the republican movement because you cannot have Sinn Fein/IRA ministers in government while their colleagues continue to be involved in domestic and international terrorism.
"What we have to come up with is something that doesn't smash Stormont but which puts pressure on Sinn Fein/IRA and, I have to say, puts pressure on the SDLP to look at alternatives."
Ulster Unionist confidence in the peace process has been dented by a succession of allegations following the arrest of three Irish republicans in Colombia last August on suspicion of training left wing rebels.
The IRA has been accused of and has denied breaking into the top-security Castlereagh Police Station in March and of fuelling much of the street violence this summer in sectarian flashpoint areas of Belfast.
Mr Trimble, who was preparing to set out his case along with Mr Jeffrey Donaldson on separate television interviews tonight, has been cautioning his critics not to come up with proposals which could isolate the party from public opinion in Britain and abroad.
UUP sources believe his critics may propose a withdrawal of UUP ministers from participation in meetings with Irish Government counterparts in the North South Ministerial Council and cross-border implementation bodies.
The withdrawal of ministers from the Executive could follow.
A Stormont source observed: "David is between a rock and a hard place. He could go for a back-me-or-sack-me approach to the meeting but if he comes out winning by a slight margin, he will be mortally wounded.
"If he bends on sanctions, he will be a prisoner to the Donaldson-Burnside wing of the party. I think he has underestimated the crisis in this party. With the Assembly elections approaching and the crisis of confidence in the Agreement among the unionist electorate, he has to get to grips with it pretty quick."
Mr Trimble has been stressing the importance of the appointment of an independent ceasefire monitor as a safeguard against any abuses of the peace process.
"You have got to have a situation where people are able to say: `Ah. These paramilitaries are at fault'. That is the crucial thing about the ceasefire monitor," the First Minister argued.
"I actually think that the threat of having that there, having a situation where paramilitaries know things aren't going to be brushed under the carpet, that there is not going to be a cover up, will itself be a powerful discipline."
But a senior Ulster Unionist source said there was a "distinct possibility" that Ulster Unionist ministers would withdraw from the power sharing executive by Christmas. Mr Jim Rodgers, who is the former Belfast Lord Mayor and Assembly candidate for east Belfast, reiterated his opposition to the appointment of a ceasefire monitor.
He said Mr Trimble was "hoping that the appointment of the independent assessor in relation to the breaking of ceasefires will not be able to report for several months".
Additional reporting PA