The Ulster Unionist Party is expected to grant two of its MPs special dispensation to stand for the Northern Ireland Assembly elections next May.
At a meeting next Friday, 14 senior party officials will decide whether the UUP MPs Mr Jeffrey Donaldson and Mr David Burnside will be allowed to compete for Assembly seats. Both have been leading members of the anti-Belfast Agreement wing and the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, has in the past opposed the candidature of Mr Donaldson for the Assembly.
It is understood the two MPs may be asked to give an undertaking to support fully the policies of the party leadership before being granted dispensation.
Given fears of electoral defeat by the DUP, senior party officials feel Mr Donaldson's and Mr Burnside's popularity among voters has to be a factor in allowing them to stand as party candidates. Mr Donaldson polled 25,000 first preference votes in last year's Westminster elections, the highest personal total of any unionist candidate in that election.
While the UUP has a rule preventing Westminster MPs from standing for MLA positions as well, that rule was broken four years ago when Mr Trimble and the then UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, now Lord Kilclooney, were given dispensation to stand for the Assembly.