Ulster Unionist Party Assembly members were last night still insisting that their private gathering in Glasgow at the weekend was not designed to fashion a compromise deal that could break the deadlock over the formation of an executive and IRA decommissioning.
The UUP members were unusually reticent about the purpose of the weekend seminar, at which they were also addressed by commentators Mr Eoghan Harris and Mr Malachi O'Doherty and historian Prof Paul Bew.
Despite speculation that the conference was designed to finetune a plan that could allow Sinn Fein in government based on IRA decommissioning beginning shortly afterwards, UUP Assembly sources said party leader Mr David Trimble did not table any formal proposal.
Other party sources said Mr Trimble was trying to determine if the party could live with some compromise around the concept of sequencing which could allow Sinn Fein to take its two ministerial seats, with IRA decommissioning to follow within four to six weeks.
Mr Roy Beggs, who is viewed as one of the UUP Assembly members most vehemently against any such compromise, yesterday would only say: "I remain fully committed to the Ulster Unionist Party policy position that unreformed terrorists cannot go into government."
