The deputy leader of the SDLP has said a "petulant" David Trimble must "reinvent himself again" and start selling the Belfast Agreement in a positive and dynamic fashion. In a direct challenge to the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr Seamus Mallon insists the transitional arrangements defined in the agreement - including the creation of a shadow Northern Ireland executive - must follow immediately upon the Assembly elections.
During an interview with The Irish Times, Mr Mallon refuses to be drawn on whether he might emerge as deputy First Minister in the new Assembly. He issues a blunt warning to Sinn Fein that it will face "a growing imperative within the body politic" to ensure "verifiable evidence" of progress on decommissioning during the two-year period prescribed by the agreement.
The Newry and Armagh MP is in good heart after an SDLP canvass in Belfast's Markets area. He senses a distinct change in the atmosphere as a result of the agreement which he, as his party's chief negotiator, played a key part in bringing about.
Would he like to be deputy First Minister in the new Assembly? The answer is predictable - that's not a decision for him; his effort is to win three seats in Newry-Armagh. But if John Hume were to decide that European and Westminster commitments would prevent him doing the job, would Mr Mallon be happy to assume leadership in the Assembly? Again no give. "I will wait and see what decisions are made. It would be presumptuous of me to pre-empt any decision by anyone else."
OK. I wonder how he thinks Mr Trimble would perform as First Minister? Mr Mallon has ready praise for Mr Trimble's courage in making the agreement, but is clearly perplexed by his pre-election manoeuvrings, particularly his opposition to the Bill providing for prisoner releases.
"I think he has to, as it were, reinvent himself again. We had the pre-agreement Trimble, which wasn't very acceptable to the vast majority of nationalists. Then people started to see him in a new light when he showed considerable courage during the talks, and in the final week especially when he did sign the agreement."
"Unfortunately," he adds, "since then, in the Westminster vote on the sentencing legislation, he seemed to contradict what he had signed rather ham-fistedly, rather petulantly. I think there again we saw the petulant Trimble acting on what seemed to be the spur of the moment, making an important decision for not very good reasons.
"He is now in an election campaign and, rather than leading pro-agreement unionists in a positive and dynamic way, he seems to be sliding back into the realms that have been occupied by Paisley and McCartney."
He continues: "If he doesn't stand by this agreement - and I mean positively selling it to the unionist community - then again he's justifying the arguments made by Paisley and McCartney, and he could find himself in a bog between the very courageous position he adopted on the agreement and the quagmire they have created for themselves."
Mr Trimble has cast a question mark over the transitional arrangements to come into play before the actual transfer of powers to the Assembly. Specifically he has said the shadow executive need not come into being until close to Christmas, "if then."
Does that accord with Mr Mallon's understanding of the agreement? He replies directly: "It's completely at variance with those arrangements. It's absolutely essential that the First Minister, deputy First Minister and the shadow executive is set up immediately." He says this is vital first to ensure stability in the process itself. To leave any void would be damaging.
Second, it is important that officials and civil servants who have been running the show for nearly 30 years, get the message that there is a new dispensation.
Most crucially, he says, the agreement stipulates October 31st for completion of plans for the implementation bodies of the North-South Council. It would be impossible "to decide upon these unless the Northern Ireland departments had been agreed and there were ministers in place to make decisions and work-up the type of arrangements necessary".
By "immediately", Mr Mallon expects these key appointments - the presiding officer and his deputy, the first and deputy First Ministers, and the shadow ministers - to be appointed by the middle of July. If Mr Trimble re fuses to accept this, it will be "incumbent upon the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to make clear that the British government, the Irish Government and the other parties have signed this agreement and that he cannot have a veto on it."
Nationalists "bit their lip" when, on three occasions at least, Mr Blair "came here to bail out" the Ulster Unionists during the referendum campaign. Mr Blair "went as close as he could to changing the terms of the agreement without doing so." If he does not use the same influence to ensure the agreement progresses, he says serious questions will be asked of Mr Blair, not least by the Irish Government.
Are there challenges also for Sinn Fein? Again Mr Mallon doesn't hesitate: "No question or doubt about that. We have the unease within the unionist community about their position. We have the unfinished business of the question of the holding of arms. The agreement is specific about that." But is it?
Dr Paisley, Mr McCartney and others say the agreement does not guarantee any decommissioning. Mr Mallon agrees "that is probably an accurate assessment in terms of the agreement as it is written". However, he adds: "I think the overall requirement - in terms of the global assessment to be made by the Secretary of State, the way in which parties are going to have to work together - means there will be a growing imperative within the body politic to ensure that within the two-year period specified, there is verifiable evidence that decommissioning is progressing."
He goes on: "I think Sinn Fein must realise this agreement can only work by consent, that consent is required from both sides and if they - as the unionists seem to be at the moment - play games with this issue, they are going to make a working agreement difficult if not impossible. I would suggest to Sinn Fein that their act of faith in the agreement and the future working of the agreement would be a very positive response in terms of the removal of arms and the weapons of war."