The Union with Britain does not exist "to sustain a religious ascendancy", Mr David Trimble told a meeting on the Labour Party conference fringe. Both before and after the meeting - hosted by the Unionist Information Office - Mr Trimble declared himself sceptical about the prospects for agreement involving all the parties in the current talks process. He again raised the possibility of an alternative route, saying "there is nothing sacrosanct about this present process".
At the meeting, the UUP leader gave no indication of any intention to quit the process, amid a seemingly growing conviction in loyalist, nationalist and Irish circles that he does intend to stay the course. Even as Mr Trimble voiced public doubts, party sources told The Irish Times they had no doubt he intended to move speedily to the substantive issues - specifically those in Strand 2 concerning the relationship between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
In an echo of his predecessor, Mr (now Lord) Molyneaux, Mr Trimble invoked the concept of "the totality of relationships" as he revived UUP proposals for a Council of the British Isles on the model of the Nordic Council.
And in a clear signal of his approach to the negotiations, he contended that the interactions between Northern Ireland and Britain - like those between the Republic and Britain - were "greater in absolute and relative terms" than those between North and South.
In measured, but equally trenchant terms, the UUP leader said the Union was "not up for negotiation" in the present, or any future, talks. But his defence of the Union was cast in inclusive language. It offered, he said, "the best prospect of peace and fair play, because it links us to a genuinely plural, liberal, democratic and modern state, capable of accommodating social, cultural and religious diversity".
He insisted the problems of Northern Ireland could not be addressed purely in an Irish context, arguing it needed "the broader, more capacious environment of the liberal, multicultural, and multinational state that is the United Kingdom as the setting for their accommodation".
Telling his audience that he stood "four-square for the Union" and would not see it diluted, Mr Trimble maintained it offered "the best future for all our people whether unionist or nationalist".