The vice-president of the Ulster Unionist Party, Mr Reg Empey, has accused campaigners against the Belfast Agreement of scaremongering and making grossly misleading and inflammatory statements.
He described as "nonsense" a claim that the executive committee of the proposed Northern Ireland Assembly would meet only once a year. "The executive committee will operate on a regular and frequent basis," he said.
He also denied claims that a nationalist minister from Northern Ireland could enter into agreements with ministers from Dublin without the consent of unionists on the North-South Ministerial Council. He said no meeting of the council "can take place without a unionist minister being present, and no decision can be taken unless it is unanimous".
The Democratic Unionist Party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, has rejected allegations of any link between rallies calling for a No vote in the referendum and the sectarian killing of Mr Ciaran Heffron at the weekend.
Mr Empey had urged people to boycott such rallies because they were being used "to inflame the community". He made the comments after reports suggested Mr Heffron's killers had attended an anti-agreement rally in Antrim on Friday night. Mr Heffron was found shot dead at 3 a.m. on Saturday in the nearby village of Crumlin.
"Our No campaign is totally opposed to any violence whatsoever. We have no association with anybody who uses violent means. But there is an effort to try to brand us and blacken us, but the truth will out," Dr Paisley said at a press conference in Belfast yesterday. He described the killing of Mr Heffron as "an atrocious and abominable attack".
The DUP leader said the police assured him that suggestions of a link between Friday night's rally and the killing had not come from them. Mr Sammy Wilson of the DUP spoke at the rally, which was organised by the Antrim Concerned Protestants group. During the speeches there were shouts of "Up the LVF" from the crowd.
Dr Paisley said he welcomed everybody to the rallies, but he didn't identify with all of them. "I preach to a bunch of sinners at my own church every Sunday night - drunkards, harlots, whore-mongers, gamblers and the lot, and I welcome them and I see them converting," he added.
Dr Paisley also predicted that there would be "a rash of royal visits" to the North up to the day of the referendum on May 22nd. This was an old ploy, which had also been used in the past, he said. The unionist community would always welcome the royal family.
Mr Peter Robinson also repeated his claims that the British army was planning to withdraw from the North in the event of a Yes vote. Reading from a document, which he said was a leaked army document, he said it set out "a process for withdrawal" and that a Yes vote would lead to an "era of irreversible change" for the army.
Mr Robinson said he could not release the document because the army could then identify its source, but that he stood over the claims despite a denial yesterday by the British Defence Secretary, Mr George Robertson.
Meanwhile, the British-Irish cross-party peace group, New Dialogue, has "broadly endorsed" the Belfast Agreement and urged a strong Yes vote.
The chairman, Mr Gary Kent, said the group had "reservations on issues such as the release of prisoners and decommissioning" and "will consult on these matters and clarify our position".
In a separate development, the Workers' Party said the murder of Mr Heffron was "a grim reminder of what the future holds if those supporting a No campaign are allowed to succeed".