Mr David Trimble will seek his party's endorsement today to return as the North's First Minister bolstered by documented comments from Gen John de Chastelain that the decommissioning body expects to meet the IRA's representative again "soon".
According to minutes of the Ulster Unionist Party's meeting with the head of the decommissioning body earlier this week, which were released by the party yesterday, Gen de Chastelain believes that the IRA's decommissioning move is not "a one-off event".
At today's meeting, the Ulster Unionist ruling executive is expected to support Mr Trimble's bid to be re-elected to the position in the Assembly next Friday despite continuing uncertainty over whether enough Assembly members will support him.
Last night dissident Ulster Unionist MLA Mr Peter Weir, whose vote could be crucial, said he would still "be inclined to oppose" Mr Trimble's re-election as First Minister based on what he knew about the IRA move on arms. He would maintain an "open mind" on the matter for the moment however, he added.
According to the UUP minutes released yesterday, when asked to explain why the IICD was not giving details of the amount of arms decommissioned, Gen de Chastelain said ". . . We want to get other events and don't want to create difficulties there. We will continue our engagement with O'Neill (the IRA) and expect our next meeting to be soon."
Asked if he thought the IRA move was the start of an "ongoing process", Gen de Chastelain, according to the minutes, replied: "Yes, if O'Neill had said this was a one-off event we would have reported that. Far from it, we were given no such indication."
According to the minutes, de Chastelain said the arms were put beyond use by an appropriate method.
He could not say what that method was but it was not the sealing of a dump with a concrete cap.
The DUP was dismissive of the Ulster Unionist minutes, and published its synopsis of its meeting with Gen de Chastelain which it said showed that the general would have been satisfied with a "single gun, a single bullet and a single ounce of Semtex".
According to the DUP's note of its meeting with Gen de Chastelain, he told them: "I am in the process of arranging to meet the IRA's representative again . . . Whether that leads to another event I cannot say."
The DUP claims that when he was asked where the "decommissioning event" took place, Gen de Chastelain replied: "I don't know . . . It could either have been in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland or Scotland".
Mr Trimble will attempt to use the UUP minutes to his advantage when he faces his executive today. There is some anxiety in British and Irish government circles, however, that he could respond to pressure from the No wing of unionism in a way that could potentially jeopardise the political progress achieved this week on the back on the IRA move on decommissioning.
It emerged last night that the dissident Young Unionist grouping backed by MPs such as Mr David Burnside, the Rev Martin Smyth and Mr William Ross is shortly to call a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council.
Dr Philip Weir (no relation of Peter Weir), a former chairman of the Young Unionists, said anti-agreement Ulster Unionists wanted to tie the party to a policy of imposing further sanctions against Sinn FΘin should the IRA fail to decommission all its weapons.
Dr Weir said a proposal to such effect would be put to today's executive meeting but because Mr Trimble enjoyed majority support on this body he was certain it would not be endorsed.
"But that is irrelevant because we have the 60 signatories necessary to call a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, and we expect that that will take place on November 17th", he said.
Such a course of action would cause great alarm in Dublin and London as well as among the broad republican movement.
The Taoiseach said yesterday on RT╔ radio that Sinn FΘin would not have the right to enter government in this State while "the structures" of the IRA were intact.
