Mr David Trimble has categorically denied rumours that he intends to stand down as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party at the annual meeting of its ruling council next month.
Pro- and anti-agreement sources have encouraged a steady build-up of speculation that the First Minister could quit the leadership at the March 9th meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, when he is obliged under party rules to submit himself for re-election.
However, Mr Trimble last night told The Irish Times the reports were "eyewash" and "balderdash" and that he would be a candidate.
The UUP leader made his intentions clear as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, gave the peace process a positive health check during a two-hour "stock-taking" meeting over lunch at 10 Downing Street yesterday.
At the same time anti-agreement sources indicated that Mr Trimble was unlikely to face a direct leadership challenge, with hostilities between the two sides more likely to focus on the elections for the party officer team.
The opening skirmishes in that battle were played out yesterday as two hardline UUP MPs, Mr David Burnside and Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, attempted to turn the heat back on Mr Trimble, warning that unionists could collapse the political process over further policing reforms and an amnesty for paramilitary fugitives or "On the Runs" (OTRs).
Both issues were high on the agenda for yesterday's summit, along with the search for an eminent international judge, as agreed during last year's Weston Park negotiations, to determine the form of inquiry to be held into allegations of "collusion" in the murders of Mr Pat Finucane, Mrs Rosemary Nelson, Mr Robert Hamill, Lord and Lady Gibson, Chief Supt Harry Breen and Supt Bob Buchanan, and Mr Billy Wright.
It is believed a number of retired Australian judges are among those being considered, although a final decision appears some way-off. No conclusions were signalled either about the shape or scale of promised British legislation to effect an amnesty for paramilitary fugitives or OTRs who, had they been convicted or served sentences, would otherwise have benefited from the prisoner release programme.
Believing the amnesty issue could trigger the next crisis, British sources have indicated that London might only "draw a line under 30 years of The Troubles" if this is to apply to the security forces as well as to paramilitaries.