British government sources last night dismissed a suggestion by Mr David Trimble that he had won assurances yesterday from Mr Tony Blair denied him on Wednesday by Dr John Reid.
Following a meeting of his party members in the Assembly, the Ulster Unionist leader described the Northern Ireland Secretary's Commons performance as "appalling" and welcomed what he claimed was "a very different emphasis coming from Downing Street" at the Prime Minister's televised press conference yesterday.
In particular Mr Trimble said he was glad that Mr Blair "gave the unequivocal assurance that I asked for and did not get . . . the Prime Minister gave a very clear, unambiguous statement that in the event of there being a breach of the IRA ceasefire, then the government would send to the Assembly a motion calling for the exclusion of Sinn Féin."
Dismissing this as "a typical unionist attempt to separate the Northern Ireland Office from Number 10", the sources insisted that the assurances given by Mr Blair and Dr Reid were "the same and unambiguous" .
They also confirmed that Mr Blair's comments at yesterday's press conference did not advance the undertakings given by both the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State to MPs on Wednesday.
In his formal statement on Wednesday, Dr Reid said he would "not hesitate" to use his existing powers in the event of a breach of the IRA ceasefire; during later exchanges he confirmed this to mean he would be "ready to use that power" to invite the Assembly to consider a motion on the holding of ministerial office.
Mr Blair yesterday repeated that pledge and confirmed that Dr Reid would be consulting the parties about the possibility of introducing "some independent element" into the process of assessing or auditing paramilitary ceasefires.
However, Whitehall sources again said this was entirely consistent with Dr Reid's suggestion that some person or persons might be invited "to shine a light" on paramilitary violence and "supplement" the judgments he would make about ceasefires.
They repeated this would not involve any diminution of Dr Reid's ultimate decision-making powers acting on the advice of his security chiefs.
Meanwhile, the UPP has postponed until September a decision on whether it will withdraw from the North's power-sharing executive. Prominent members of the UUP's anti-agreement wing believe the party must pull out of government with Sinn Féin over continuing Provisional IRA activity. They warn that if Mr Trimble does not act this year, the UUP will lose major support to the DUP in next May's Assembly elections.
After the 90-minute meeting at Stormont with his Assembly team, Mr Trimble said he would formally consult with his party in mid-September on progress since the British government's statement.
Mr Tony Blair has said any future breach of paramilitary ceasefires will be met with a "rigorous" response but he stopped short of applying sanctions to Sinn Féin over Provisional IRA activity.
Mr Trimble refused to be drawn on whether a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council, the UUP's ruling body, would be called in the autumn.
Meanwhile, the Conservative Northern Ireland spokesman, Mr Quentin Davies, has said the peace process is "in intensive care" and must not be allowed to deteriorate further.
During a visit to Belfast, he expressed disappointment at the British government's statement on the paramilitary ceasefires. While there, Mr Davies met the city's Sinn Féin Lord Mayor, Mr Alex Maskey. He urged both the British government and Sinn Féin to translate recent words into deeds.