Sinn Fein has dismissed claims that today's intended meeting of the British-Irish Council was postponed to facilitate the increasing pace of negotiations on demilitarisation and decommissioning. The Sinn Fein party chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, claimed both the British and Irish governments were covering up for Mr Trimble, who, he alleged, was refusing to sign papers to allow Sinn Fein's Ms Bairbre de Brun attend the BIC meeting in Dublin.
The meeting would have been the second of its kind, with the heads of administrations throughout Britain and Ireland due to attend. It will now be held on February 5th.
Speaking in the Assembly yesterday, Mr Trimble said today's meeting had been seen by the governments as a "distraction" to the ongoing political discussions, "which we hope will result in significant progress and the implementation of the agreement".
Mr Mallon, the SDLP Deputy First Minister, also said this was his understanding but Mr McLaughlin said it was "a smokescreen" and instead of defending the agreement, the governments had provided a fig leaf for Mr Trimble.
The First Minister is bound by party policy to block nominations of Sinn Fein ministers to meetings of the North-South Ministerial Council. Last week there were indications that he was under pressure to extend this ban to BIC meetings, representing the "east-west" dimension of the Belfast Agreement.
Mr McLaughlin said the decision not to hold the BIC meeting meant "two of the three legs of the Good Friday agreement are now being attacked", and blamed this on internal tensions within Ulster Unionism.
Sinn Fein sources said they felt that the decision to postpone the BIC meeting would have no real impact on impending negotiations but added that Mr Trimble's actions indicated a disturbing willingness "to up the ante".
The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will talk separately with Mr Trimble, Mr Mallon and Mr Gerry Adams today, when he meets delegations from the UUP, SDLP and Sinn Fein in London. The talks are believed to be aimed at producing a resolution of the issues by the end of the month.
This date is dictated by Mr Trimble's undertaking to his party's ruling council to review its participation in the arrangements of the Belfast Agreement in January.
Sources last night suggested that the discussions could continue tomorrow and on Thursday.
Meanwhile, anti-agreement unionists were critical of the UUP's failure to secure decommissioning. Mr Edwin Poots MLA of the Democratic Unionist Party, said the suspension of the BIC meeting was symptomatic of the crisis within the Belfast Agreement and Mr William Ross, a UUP MP, said Sinn Fein ministers should be expelled from the Executive.