The Reverend Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party claimed today it has obtained an advance of copy the Ulster Unionist Party manifesto days before it is due to be unveiled.
The DUP published the document 48 hours ahead of Mr David Trimble's official launch.
DUP deputy leader Mr Peter Robinson said today he had had the UUP manifesto since Thursday and said that meant "there are some people Mr Trimble trusts which he shouldn't."
He went on to describe the document as "frail, limp, vague and uninformative."
Mr Robinson said it gave Mr Trimble a "blank cheque to continue the delivery of the republican agenda."
An Ulster Unionist spokesman refused to comment on the DUP claim it had the manifesto, but privately sources confirmed it was the real thing.
The UUP went on the offensive commenting: "It is the DUP which has no pledges, no promises, no plan and no actual strategy themselves for dealing with Sinn Féin's refusal to decommission weapons."
The manifesto warns the Stormont Assembly is "jeopardised" by the lack of decommissioning, adding that "inclusive government cannot be sustained indefinitely in such circumstances."
Meanwhile Sinn F[ac]ein president Mr Gerry Adams accused the DUP today of lying to unionists in a bid to get their vote.
"The DUP are saying that they won't deal with Sinn Féin - for them to say they aren't dealing with us or working the system (at Stormont) is a complete nonsense, in fact it is a lie.
"The DUP are selling to their electorate a lie, trying to frighten as they have done for the last 30 years - since the rise of Paisleyism - they are trying to frighten sections of the loyalist or unionist people into voting for them as if that will in some way prevent the changes that are coming."
The quicker unionists "wise up to this", said Mr Adams, the easier the process for change would be as unionists, instead of resisting the process of change, would be in the engine room of change.
PA