As both wings of the UUP prepared for next months meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, a senior member of the SDLP hascalled on them to "get real" and prove their commitment to the Belfast Agreement.
The former Stormont Finance Minister, Seán Farren, said: "The disarray again affecting the UUP poses a major threat to politicalprogress."
He said "The controversy over the size of the Royal Irish Regiment is a fig-leaf foran internal struggle for power.
"It is time for the UUP to get real and to demonstrate that it is determinedto have all of the Good Friday Agreement implemented.
"That includes the proposals of the Joint Declaration. These proposals aremerely the outworking of the Agreement in a number of key respects. To rejectone section is to lose sight of the interdependence of the totality of thedeclaration."
PA