Assembly members of the DUP reacted angrily yesterday to comments made by the First Minister of Northern Ireland, Mr David Trimble, who said he had no wish to have "rogue" ministers in the new executive.
The Rev Ian Paisley, leader of the DUP, criticised Mr Trimble for making his comments at a press conference at the end of proceedings on Monday rather than in the Assembly chamber where his party could have responded directly. He also criticised the fact that the Assembly had not been convened earlier to discuss the Omagh bombing.
Speaking at a specially convened press conference at Stormont's Parliament Buildings, the DUP's deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, repeated the criticism, saying Mr Trimble had shown "political cowardice" by not making his comments in the Assembly.
"Instead, he comes up here to beat his chest and to call the DUP party and its members names," said Mr Robinson.
He later added: "Who does he think he is?"
Dr Paisley said observers would have to "wait and see" if his party would attend meetings of the North-South body.
Responding to a question from The Irish Times, Dr Paisley said: "We have our own plan for the North-South Council which we will reveal in due course."
He predicted that the First Minister, Mr Trimble, and the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, would have "their cosy relationship with Bertie Ahern".
Dr Paisley repeated a statement made earlier in the Assembly, that the peace process represented the efforts of the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, "to buy the IRA off from bombing the mainland".
The DUP also repeated its assertion that members would not sit in an Assembly executive with Sinn Fein.
The party pledged to adhere to its election manifesto, "unlike the Ulster Unionist Party".
Referring to demands for IRA decommissioning as a precondition for Sinn Fein's entry into the executive, the DUP Assembly member for North Belfast, Mr Nigel Dodds, predicted: "There will be no substantial, real or meaningful decommissioning and there will be an executive formed with IRA-Sinn Fein in it."
Mr Dodds also commented on a possible reduction in the size of the executive, which could reduce DUP representation from two seats to one. He said the First Minister, the Deputy First Minister and the British government "will do everything in their power, and are doing everything in their power, to restrict the DUP in terms of this Assembly."