David Trimble has again urged the British government to hold a referendum on a united Ireland in conjunction with next year's Assembly elections in the North.
The North's First Minister told journalists at Westminster today that a "border poll" would reassure Unionists that the operation of the Good Friday Agreement was "not a process being driven by the paramilitaries with the threat of violence."
He added a poll would show it was not a process heading in the wrong direction and would put an end to "Republicans winding up Unionists, unsettling them and keeping them off balance."
The Taoiseach has described the call for a border poll as a "zany proposal". Answering questions in the Dáil Bertie Ahern said that having a plebiscite before a review of the Good Friday Agreement was not envisaged when the pact was being negotiated.
Mr Ahern went on to say that holding such a poll at the same time as next year's Assembly elections, as suggested by the Ulster Unionist leader, would be a disaster.
David Trimble first made the suggestion at the AGM of the Ulster Unionist Council on 9 March. At the same meeting Mr Trimble branded the Republic of Ireland a pathetic sectarian, mono-ethnic, mono-cultural state.
