THE Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, bitterly criticised the Tanaiste yesterday, describing him as a "jumped up little man from Dublin" whose involvement in Northern Ireland was an "impudence".
Mr Trimble's attack, the second in three days, was in response to Mr Spring's warning last week that there could not be an "ultimate accommodation" in Northern Ireland without Sinn Fein's involvement.
Mr Spring also stated he believed the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, was "big enough" to support measures that could solve the crisis, even if that meant the Ulster Unionists withdrawing their support and his government falling.
Speaking on Sunday with Adam Bouhon on Sky News, Mr Trimble denounced Mr Spring's comments as "absolutely disgraceful" and accused him of "interfering" in the UK's internal affairs.
"How come we get this jumped up little man from Dublin coming along trying to tell the British Prime Minister what to do? I think he should be given his marching orders ... He is not elected by anybody in Northern Ireland. By what right, therefore, does he seek to interfere in Northern Ireland's affairs? I think it is an act of impudence," he said.
Mr Trimble also claimed the Tanaiste's comments revealed him to be undemocratic and proved he sympathised with Sinn Fein's stance.
"He is engaged in the talks process and, in effect, he is saying that the largest party, the Ulster Unionist Party, should be ignored. That is not the position of a democrat, but then of course Mr Spring regards the views of Sinn Fein as more important than everybody else's," he said.
In response to a suggestion that the SDLP might form an electoral alliance with Sinn Fein, Mr Trimble said he did not think any democratic party would agree to such a deal, but that any such pact would be a "defining moment" for the SDLP.
Mr Trimble added that he thought the continuing relationship of the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, had damaged his party and could explain its electoral decline.
Mr Spring said Mr Trimble's remarks would not affect the situation, but that "we should be looking for the language of accommodation rather than hurling invective at one another".
In an RTE radio interview Mr Spring said: "At the end of the day we are going to have to sit around the table. You don't have to like one another to reach agreement. But you have to find an accommodation between unionists and nationalists in Northern Ireland and work for a new relationship. This invective does not help and I do not want to engage in it."