Unionists will today warn Dublin they will not be bound by any British-Irish government decisions in respect of cross-Border bodies taken during the suspension of the Stormont Assembly.
The tough warning will be delivered by the former Stormont enterprise minister, Sir Reg Empey, during talks with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, in Dublin this afternoon.
At the same time Sir Reg seems set to raise the prospect of an immediate threat to still-functioning cross-Border implementation bodies by signalling that the Ulster Unionist Party might refuse to nominate for vacancies to four North-South agencies due to be filled this month.
This would mark a dramatic escalation of the UUP's dispute with Dublin over recent Irish legislation allowing for decisions of the North South Ministerial Council (NSMC) in respect of cross-Border bodies to be taken by the Irish and British governments pending the restoration of Northern Ireland's devolved administration.
Sir Reg and his party leader, Mr David Trimble, insist no Irish legislation is necessary to ensure the protection of existing budgets and work programmes of the cross-Border bodies.
And they maintain that the British Irish Agreement (Amendment) Bill, 2002, recently introduced in the Dáil by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, represents "a unilateral change" to the Belfast Agreement which bypasses the principle of consent.
Of almost greater concern to the UUP appears to be the fact that the Irish legislation effects a "supplementary agreement" between the British and Irish governments about which they say they were not consulted, and of which they claim to have been unaware until it was disclosed in an annex to the Bill setting out the terms of the relevant correspondence between Mr Cowen and the British ambassador to Ireland, Sir Ivor Roberts.
Speaking ahead of his meeting with Mr Cowen, Sir Reg told The Irish Times: "The agreement has been unilaterally changed without our consent, and that's a huge issue of principle."
Confirming a range of possible Unionist sanctions in punitive response, he continued: "The whole point about North-South arrangements was that they had to be in the context of the agreement and the consent principle. If that's taken away, then our consent is also gone."
British sources last night confirmed that a UUP refusal to nominate to the North-South agencies, possibly coupled with advice to existing nominees to withdraw, could spell a serious threat to the cross-Border implementation bodies currently unaffected by the suspension of the Assembly.
The British government appears uncertain about the gravity of this Dublin-UUP row, first disclosed in Monday's Irish Times.
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, yesterday sought to reassure unionists that no new policies would be introduced and that the cross-Border bodies remained on a "care-and-maintenance" basis only.
Mr Murphy also repeated his original assurance to the North Down UKUP Assembly member, Mr Robert McCartney, that the NSMC stood suspended alongside the Assembly.
In addition, UUP spokesmen acknowledge that the disputed Irish legislation makes it clear that no new functions could be conferred on the cross-Border bodies in the absence of devolution.
However, Sir Reg and Mr Trimble maintain that the legislation contains the potential for future London-Dublin decision-making without input from devolved ministers should the suspension of the Assembly prove protracted.
At its worst some of their UUP colleagues say the Dublin legislation provides the blueprint for some form of future joint London-Dublin authority in the continued absence of devolution.
Sir Reg last night insisted: "They have created a parallel NSMC with the clear potential to develop" and accused Dublin of "turning an area of the Belfast Agreement which was working well into a battlefield".