THE DUP helped Mr John Major to scrape to a one vote victory in last night's crucial Commons vote on the Scott report on the Arms to Iraq affair. But the immediate implications for Anglo Irish affairs were unclear as British ministers indicated they had refused "a clandestine deal" with the Ulster Unionists over the voting mechanism to be used in any elections in the North.
On a technical motion to adjourn the House, the government won the day by 320 votes to 319.
After a series of meetings with Mr Major and other ministers throughout the day, the nine Ulster Unionist MPs joined forces with Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the nationalist parties.
Conservative MPs Mr Richard Shepherd and Mr Quentin Davies, and their former colleague Mr Peter Thurnham, also voted against the government.
But a series of last minute promises on the future disclosure of information won other Tory dissidents back into the fold. The abstentions by the Rev Ian Paisley, Mr Peter Robinson and the Rev William McCrea saved the government's blushes and spared Mr Major from a further damaging blow to his authority.
The immediate effect was to relieve Mr Major of the ordeal of a Commons confidence debate. However, after a bruising debate, in which Labour's Mr Robin Cook castigated "a government that knows no shame", it was unclear whether the result had finally settled the futures of the Chief Secretary, Mr William Waldegrave and the Attorney General, Sir Nicholas Lyell.
On television last night, the Ulster Unionists leader, Mr David Trimble, seemed to anticipate that the Anglo Irish summit would go ahead tomorrow as originally hoped. While Mr Major was meeting him in a last gasp attempt to ensure his party's support, senior British and Irish officials were continuing the Anglo Irish negotiation a short distance away in the British cabinet office.
The group, led by Mr Paddy Teahon, secretary to the Department of the Taoiseach, and the British Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robin Butler, will resume its discussions in London this morning. A Government spokesman said early this morning that reasonable progress was made, but some areas remain to be settled."
The Irish delegation will seek an assessment of last night's vote and its import in terms of Mr Major's ability and willingness to close the gap that still remains before an agreed communique can be presented to the Taoiseach and the prime minister.
While at one glance the UUP decision not to back Mr Major would encourage expectations that agreement is imminent, the prime minister's new found relationship with Dr Paisley leaves fundamental questions still unresolved.
Speaking on BBC's Newsnight programme, Mr Trimble insisted that he had not been in the business of deal making yesterday. He said any meetings he had had throughout the day with Mr Major or other ministers were "at their request, not mine".
However, it is clear that the UUP failed to extract assurances that an election in the North would not be conducted by way of a party plebiscite, operating on a party list system. They are understood, too, to be unhappy with the possible wording for a referendum to be held North and South inviting support for democratic principles and an end to violence.
That said, senior unionist sources last night expressed confidence that these issues remained open and that London and Dublin had not yet agreed a formula for the election or referendum options or the means by which the Mitchell report's recommendations for "parallel decommissioning" during all party negotiations would be dealt with in any revived peace process.
Irish sources, too, confirmed that the gap between the British and Irish positions had not yet been bridged.
Meanwhile, after an unproductive meeting between a Sinn Fein delegation and British government officials at Stormont yesterday, Mr Martin McGuinness said the situation was now "very grave indeed".