Response due to UUP block on SF

An indication is expected today from Sinn Fein on how it ein are to announce today how they will respond to the Ulster Unionist Party's attempt to prevent Sinn Fein's Ms Bairbre de Brun attending a North-South ministerial meeting in Enniskillen on Friday.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, is due to brief the Cabinet this morning on what action should be taken, while in Belfast, the Northern Minister of Health, Ms de Brun, is expected to announce Sinn Fein's response to the Ulster Unionist sanction.

The Ulster Unionist Council's decision to adopt Mr David Trimble's motion barring Sinn Fein from North-South meetings until the IRA engages with the decommissioning commission has triggered a hectic round of political activity involving Dublin, London, Belfast and Washington.

Ms de Brun is to hold a press conference this morning where she is to indicate her approach to Friday's health and food safety North-South meeting in Enniskillen. Sinn Fein has insisted that it will not allow Mr Trimble to determine the movements of its ministers and has called on the British and Irish governments to "defend" the agreement.

Mr Trimble and his advisers insist that under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 he "shall" determine what ministers attend such meetings. The Government, Sinn Fein and the SDLP are separately taking legal advice on whether the central inclusive nature of the Belfast Agreement would override other legislation which allowed the exclusion of Sinn Fein.

All parties agree, however, that essentially this is a political problem and while there may be legal challenges, a resolution is down to the competing parties.

Mr Cowen and the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, are to meet in London tomorrow. The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, the Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness, and Assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly have also raised the issue with the White House.

The SDLP Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, said that once again politicians "were staring into the brink". He was seeking an urgent meeting with the First Minister today in an attempt to arrange a special meeting of the Northern Executive.

Mr Trimble, who has been in Spain since Sunday, is due back in his office this morning.

Mr Mallon said a situation could not be allowed where "one party to this political process is dictating to an Irish government, or to ourselves, or to Sinn Fein, or anybody else as to who will be present where and when".

Mr Mallon also said the IRA had a duty to re-engage in a "meaningful way" with Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body. "I think it should not be done in a way that seems frivolous to unionists, and by that I mean a phone call from an IRA member to Gen de Chastelain - that to me isn't reengagement," he told the BBC.

Mr Adams said he hadn't "a leg to stand on" in terms of urging the IRA to deal with the decommissioning body. "How does David Trimble hope to achieve his stated objective by reducing a Sinn Fein minister to someone who can only do his or her job at Mr Trimble's whim?"