Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble has expressed confidence that he will prevail at a crucial internal meeting next weekend. However, leading anti-agreement MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson has said his party must finally make up its mind on allowing Sinn Féin to continue in government.
The UUP's ruling body, the Ulster Unionist Council (UUC), will meet in Belfast on Saturday to discuss strategy. A meeting of the party's 100-member executive was held last Saturday. Sources said that both pro- and anti-agreement activists voiced concern about the political situation.
The party also discussed the British government's decision to appoint an independent monitor of the paramilitary ceasefires, as well as the possible war with Iraq. Speaking after the meeting, Mr Donaldson said "a good discussion" had taken place and he looked forward to the debate at the forthcoming UUC meeting.
He had "no idea" what the outcome would be but it was decision-time for his party, he said.
"As next May's Assembly elections loom even closer, it is vital we now address the issue of removing Sinn Féin from government. Leaving it any longer will look increasingly not like an act of principle but one of desperation as the election approaches.
"It is vital that, at the UUC meeting, we re-establish our bottom line, which is that we will not sit in government with unreconstructed terrorists."
Speaking after Saturday's meeting, Mr Trimble accused his critics of "begrudgery".
Next Saturday's UUC meeting will be the ninth since he became leader. He has carried the day every time. Asked if he was confident of doing so again, he replied: "Yes, is the short answer to that".
One party member recently said Mr Trimble was like a cat with nine lives. "People are going to have to address the possibility that this particular cat has even more than nine lives," he said.
He clashed with the anti-agreement wing over the British government's plans to appoint an independent monitor of the paramilitary ceasefires. The move has been seen as an attempt to lessen pressure on the UUP leader.
Mr Trimble said the appointment was a means of "shining a very strong searchlight on the activities of all paramilitaries".
Some of his colleagues had said they didn't trust the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, so "all the more reason for having a monitoring mechanism of this nature", Mr Trimble said.
However, Mr Donaldson dismissed the proposal. "I don't need a ceasefire monitor to tell me that the IRA ceasefire is broken. It is broken, as is the UDA and UVF ceasefire. We need to decide what we are going to do about that."
Next Saturday's meeting has been called by anti-agreement unionists unhappy about the party continuing in government with Sinn Féin in light of reports of Provisional IRA activity in Colombia and the North. The UUC agreed to go into government with Sinn Féin two years ago but it also has the power to pull Ulster Unionist ministers out.