As Senator George Mitchell yesterday evening returned to the United States having completed his review, the UUP Assembly team met at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, to consider its next move.
The UUP Assembly meeting was described by party sources as "low-key but useful and constructive". No votes were taken on the package designed to lead to the formation of an executive and IRA decommissioning, they said.
Most of the UUP's 27 Assembly members were present, although Mr John Taylor was absent on business, according to one source.
So far the Assembly party appears willing to leave it to Mr Trimble to dictate the course of events.
With the support of the majority of the UUP's 14 officers, he is today expected to call a meeting of the 860-member ruling Ulster Unionist Council.
If Mr Trimble can sell the package to the council he is then expected to set the machinery in motion to establish the executive.
As key pro-agreement UUP members such as Sir Reg Empey and Mr Ken Maginnis began campaigning for what they believe are the merits of the deal, the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, accused Mr Trimble of reneging on promises he made in his Assembly election manifesto.
Dr Paisley said Mr Trimble had insisted that the party would not deviate from its position of prior decommissioning.
He said the DUP was arranging a rally for the Ulster Hall in Belfast on Tuesday to oppose the deal and the Patten proposals.
Dr Paisley also availed of his press conference to scotch any rumours that he is seriously ill. He said that in recent weeks he had become aware of a rumour that he was suffering from cancer.
He said the rumours may have arisen because he was recently seen in Belvoir Park cancer hospital in Belfast, but this was because he was visiting a "member of my flock".
Defending the UUP strategy as the only way to achieve decommissioning, Mr Ken Maginnis said: "I will admit this: if we don't get the guns, if we don't get disarmament then we will be disappointed and defeated people.
"But we will only get those things if we stay there. The people who aren't there, the people who would walk away now, certainly won't get disarmament."
