Testy exchanges marked the countdown to the Assembly Election in the North on Wednesday with all the main parties predictably claiming they would make gains.
The Ulster Unionists will emerge stronger, their leader Mr David Trimble predicted.
At an election event in south Belfast appealing to voters to turn out at the polls, the Upper Bann MP said: "I will give you just one prediction: We will not lose a single seat to the DUP and we will make gains."
Democratic Unionist MP Mr Gregory Campbell dismissed the prediction.
"If Mr Trimble is still blissfully unaware of the unionist reaction on the doorsteps, then he is in for a bigger shock than many in his own party would have him believe," the East Derry MP said.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams predicted his party was going to attract preferences for the first time from a "small amount of more far-sighted unionist voters".
The West Belfast MP said the party would make gains at the expense of the SDLP whose supporters, he claimed, had been put off by their "negative, carping and begrudging campaign against Sinn Féin".
SDLP director of elections Ms Brid Rodgers hit back, insisting her party's core vote remained strong.
"Our campaign to protect the Agreement and stop the DUP has hit home with nationalist voters and that is why we will again be the largest nationalist party after the votes are counted," she said.
But there are predictions that the election could end to the dominance of the moderate parties in the North.
Opinion polls show rising scepticism among unionists about the Belfast Agreement, which points to the DUP overtaking the UUP as the biggest unionist party in the Assembly.
On the nationalist side, Sinn Féin's powerful electoral machine and charismatic leadership is thought likely finally usurp an SDLP which, until the election campaign at least, has looked demoralised since the retirement of Mr John Hume and Mr Seamus Mallon.
"I think all the indicators are that the DUP and Sinn Féin are going to end up the largest parties - it would be surprising if the result was any other way," Mr Paul Dixon, politics lecturer at the University of Ulster, said.
"The key battle is between the DUP and the UUP, both nationalist parties are going to operate the agreement, but it looks like only one party will on the unionist side," he added,
Turnout will be crucial, with many commentators saying Mr Trimble can only win if he manages to bring out the affluent, middle-class Protestants who broadly back the agreement but historically have tended not to vote.
However, while campaigning has been intense but generally low-key, the under-pressure parties have been performing better than expected with the most recent opinion poll showing the SDLP and UUP slightly ahead of their direct rivals.
But polls in the North are notoriously inaccurate and usually underestimate the support for the DUP and Sinn Féin.
One thing is certain, the transfer of votes will o be crucial and the election will prove to be the most accurate test of feeling about the Belfast Agreement.
If voters cross the sectarian divide at the ballot box and transfer to pro- Agreement parties - as urged by the SDLP, Sinn Féin and the UUP - then the moderates may yet carry the day.
Additional reporting agencies