Mr David Trimble again has indicated his willingness to show flexibility on the "sequencing" of devolution and decommissioning in the context of a clear start to a process leading to total paramilitary disarmament.
The First Minister-designate's insistence that the Belfast Agreement can yet be implemented has encouraged cautious government hopes that substantive negotiations can be resumed between the parties, in the context of the Mitchell review, following the Ulster Unionist Party conference in Fermanagh on October 9th.
However, at a fringe meeting here addressed also by Dr Mo Mowlam, the UUP leader suggested the search for political progress and the implementation of the Patten Report on future policing in the North could converge "to the disadvantage of the community by undermining the agreement".
It is understood that Mr Trimble had a private meeting with Mr Blair in Bournemouth last night.
Mr Trimble behaved impeccably toward the Secretary of State at the meeting organised by the Unionist Information Office (UIO) - even seeming to disown his demand for her removal made at a press event organised by the UIO in London in early summer.
Despite the polite tone of their exchanges, it was clear that a bitter battle lies beyond the consultation period on Patten due to be concluded at the end of November.
Mr Trimble confirmed that he had advised Mr Chris Patten "if he got the symbolism wrong, it didn't matter about the rest". Symbolism did matter, he asserted, "because it sets the style of the organisation". And he insisted the Patten proposals had opened the door "to the Balkanisation of policing . . . and to giving paramilitaries considerable influence over policing".
However, Dr Mowlam insisted that "Patten was a very rounded report", which she did not want to "cherry pick". Asked if she could envisage making substantial changes, Dr Mowlam said she would obviously consider carefully any proposal "that was supported across Northern Ireland".
Dr Mowlam repeated the familiar line that the present impasse resulted from each side's distrust of the other. But Mr Trimble said this view was "not really balanced" and asserted that, whereas Sinn Fein had no reason to distrust the UUP commitment, "we have good reason not to trust them."
While some people thought to have detected a "seismic shift" in republican thinking last July, Mr Trimble said Sinn Fein had briefed supporters that its strategy was "to confuse and divide (its) opponents". Defending his refusal to form the executive then, Mr Trimble said: "Had we taken the gamble last July the likelihood is that the agreement by now would have collapsed. By not taking risks then we kept the process in existence."
Insisting that his party was "ready to deliver" on the referendum vote for an inclusive executive, Mr Trimble said it would not accept proposals which would "institutionalise the mafia state". Repeating his willingness to look at "sequencing", Mr Trimble said: "But there has to be a credible beginning to a process of decommissioning . . . looking to total disarmament."