Senior unionists hope Queen Elizabeth will be invited to visit the Stormont Assembly during her visit to Northern Ireland as part of her golden jubilee tour of the United Kingdom.
This emerged last night as Sir David Steel confirmed that the queen will become the first head of state to address the Scottish Parliament during her jubilee visit to Scotland in May.
For security reasons no details of Queen Elizabeth's planned Northern Ireland programme were released yesterday as Buckingham Palace confirmed the Jubilee celebrations would open with a Downing Street dinner hosted by Mr Tony Blair, and attended by past prime ministers, on April 29th.
However, sources at the office of the Assembly Speaker, Lord Alderdice, last night confirmed that the question of a royal visit to Stormont had not so far been raised either by Buckingham Palace or by any of the Northern Ireland parties.
Lord Alderdice could extend an invitation to the queen if requested to do so, for example, by the Assembly's Business Committee comprising most of the party whips. Asked if such an invitation would need to be on a "cross-community basis", the source said: "Whatever the technical position, in fairness to her majesty she would not wish to enter a contested situation."
Senior unionist sources at Stormont confirmed their understanding of the sensitivity of the issue, indicating that informal soundings were likely to be taken in the first instance in discussions with the SDLP.
Downing Street sources said this was a matte r for the Assembly and the palace authorities. However, the issue is likely to quickly move-up the political agenda, not least because London and Dublin sources have clearly identified next year as the preferred date for a historic and unprecedented visit by Queen Elizabeth to the Republic.