Two Ulster Unionist Assembly members have said that they will reject the latest proposals aimed at pushing the North's peace process forward.
Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage have both described the proposals as unacceptable. The move means that David Trimble no longer has a sufficient number of Unionists at Stormont to re-elect him as First Minister.
Bairbre De Brun has meanwhile called on David Trimble to withdraw "disgraceful comments" which he made yesterday. In his initial response to joint proposals for implementing the Good Friday Agreement, the Ulster Unionist leader warned that the IRA must dispose of its arms if the Agreement and the institutions were to survive.
The West Belfast MLA accused him of trying to distract attention from his failure to use his influence to arrest the "nightly Loyalist onslaught on the Nationalist community" and his responsibility for feeding the political instability within which attacks thrive.
The Northern Minister for Health said that Mr Trimble would be better served in paying more attention to the undertakings he signed up to the Good Friday Agreement, rather than attempting to demonise, marginalise or justify the exclusion of Sinn Féin ministers from office.
Ms De Brun had been banned by Mr Trimble from attending cross-border meetings with her Irish counterpart.
Mr Trimble said that the crisis in the peace process can be resolved only by the decommissioning of IRA weapons. He said that, without decommissioning, no Ulster Unionist would be able to offer himself for election as First Minister.
"There can't be a moral vacuum at the heart of this. We are not legitimising terrorism. It's not all right to be in government by day and out engaged in other activities by night," said Mr Trimble.
