A senior Ulster Unionist, Sir Reg Empey, has said his party was facing a "terrible dilemma" on whether to pull out of the power-sharing executive in the face of British government inaction on paramilitary ceasefires.
His comments came against a backdrop of speculation that the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, might decide to pull his ministers out of government in September following thorough consultation with party activists over the next few weeks. The resignation of Mr Trimble as First Minister as well as of the other three UUP ministers could lead to fresh assembly elections as early as November rather than in May 2003 as proposed by the Northern Secretary, Dr Reid.
It is thought that Mr Trimble, before departing on holiday last week, set up the consultation process, headed by Mr David McNarry, to establish whether "we as a constitutional party can safely continue in government with Sinn Féin". He is believed to have told senior advisors to prepare for the possibility of Assembly elections in November.
Sir Reg, the North's Trade Minister and a close ally of Mr Trimble, said the UUP was struggling with the morality of sharing power with Sinn Féin under the Belfast Agreement in the face of Provisional IRA activity such as its involvement in Colombia.
"There is a big dilemma here because on the one hand we want to keep the institutions going, we want to implement the agreement that we supported. On the other hand, there is this enormous moral dilemma where you have involvement with a party that is clearly linked to a paramilitary organisation and that organisation has not completely terminated its paramilitary operations and, indeed it is not even honouring the commitments both in letter and in spirit that were entered into by Sinn Féin.
"Now that is a terrible dilemma and what has happened hitherto is that the government has been coming down on the side of those who pose to them the greater threat and those are the people with weapons and with armies. That is a challenge that democratic parties like ours should not be facing," he told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics.