Officers of the Ulster Unionist Party meet today to examine the resignations of Mr Jeffrey Donaldson and two other Assembly members amid signs that the leadership of Mr David Trimble is under increasing threat.
Mr Donaldson and Ms Arlene Foster, both party officers, quit the party last Thursday along with Ms Norah Beare, a constituency colleague of the Lagan Valley MP.
As the turmoil within the party continues, there are also indications that UUP members opposed to the party line on the Belfast Agreement are themselves divided.
One unionist figure told The Irish Times last night that the 45 per cent or so of the party opposed to the Trimble line had never been united around Mr Donaldson.
The UUP president, the Rev Martin Smyth, who has refused orders to retake the Westminster whip, called at the weekend for Mr Trimble to go. He also wants another meeting of the party's ruling Ulster Unionist Council to consider the Trimble leadership.
However, the other rebel MP, Mr David Burnside, has said it was a mistake for Mr Donaldson to resign. He also revealed that he and Mr Trimble's predecessor, Lord Molyneaux, tried to talk Mr Donaldson out of resignation.
He told the BBC: "I think it is a tactical mistake to have left the party." It was reported that some senior Trimble loyalists were sounding out opinion within the party with a view to advising the party leader on his next move after eight turbulent years in the leadership. However, this has been vehemently denied by a well-placed unionist source.
Mr Trimble still believes that a majority of unionists are still prepared to hold to the Belfast Agreement and that, with time, its benefits will become clearer.
The party's ruling Ulster Unionist Council is scheduled to hold its a.g.m. in March and to reappoint the leader for another 12 months.
That gives Mr Trimble less than four months to consolidate his position as leader and to unite the bitterly divided elements of the party around an agreed position.
In the interim, Mr Trimble will have to achieve something positive out of next month's review of the agreement.
Following a difficult Westminster election in 2001, in which the party lost seats to the DUP, and the landmark election to the Assembly last month, which confirmed Dr Paisley's party as the undisputed leader of unionism, party members are looking for stability in advance of June's European poll.
Some within the UUP are openly pleased with last week's resignations, claiming it provides an opportunity for Mr Trimble to unite the membership now that the disruptive figure of Mr Donaldson has departed.
However, others want more concrete signs that the electoral slippage of the party since 2001 will end and they are not certain Mr Trimble can provide that in advance of the European elections and the next Westminster poll.
There were indications at the weekend of the approach the DUP may make to the planned review of the agreement.
In a speech in Coleraine, Co Derry, the North Belfast MP Mr Nigel Dodds envisaged a watered-down version of devolution.
"Let us get down to the job of creating agreed institutions," he said. "We must create a form of administration which is designed to serve the community not the politicians. We do not need three times as many representatives per head in our assembly as is the case in Scotland or Wales.
"We do not need nearly twice as many government departments under devolution as under direct rule. We do not need the civic forum. We do not need the elaborate but ineffective human rights and equality agendas."