The North's former First Minister Mr David Trimble has been plunged into a new crisis tonight after hard-liners in his Ulster Unionist Party rejected his plan to save the Royal Irish Regiment (RIR).
Bitter internal divisions were exposed when Lagan Valley MP Mr Jeffrey Donaldson vowed to press ahead with a rival plan aimed at distancing the UUP from the British and Irish governments' blueprint for slashing troop levels in Northern Ireland.
Amid intense speculation that the RIR's three Home Service battalions are set to be axed, Mr Donaldson has called a meeting of the 860-member Ulster Unionist Council next month in a bid to secure formal opposition to the London and Dublin document.
Mr Trimble has arranged a separate gathering of the UUP's Executive next Friday - and has urged the man considered his likely successor, to call off the council meeting. But Mr Donaldson insisted tonight: "I'm not going to withdraw my requisition. This issue is so serious that the grass roots must have their say."
The British government has denied any decision has been taken to scrap the regiment.
But incensed unionists claim the disbandment plans have already been agreed by Downing Street and the military authorities.
An internal draft paper prepared by the General Officer Commanding in the North, Lieut Gen Philip Trousdell, said the move was inevitable.
British army chiefs have now pulled back by stressing the 3,000 soldiers attached to the Home Service battalions in Hollywood, County Down, Armagh city and Omagh, Co Tyrone, would only go once all paramilitary threat has ended.
The threat does not involve the RIR 1st Battalion which fought in Iraq and until recently was under the command of Colonel Tim Collins, now the subject of two Ministry of Defence investigations.
Plans for a huge military scale down were included in the British and Irish governments' joint declaration issued earlier this month, which depends on the IRA declaring its war over.
Mr Trimble has demanded an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Tony Blair and pledged to disown the document unless he received assurances about the Royal Irish's future.
But anti-Belfast Agreement unionists suspect he was aware of the threat.
Mr Donaldson said any guarantees from Downing Street were worthless. "Clearly David Trimble does not want a meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council. There is a difference of opinion.
"I believe there should be a meeting. What are people afraid of? Why are they so desperate to prevent a meeting taking place?"
UUP Honorary secretary Ms Arlene Foster backed his efforts to get the joint declaration rejected.
The plan also outlines what London and Dublin will do about policing, criminal justice, fugitive paramilitaries and sanctions against political parties.
Ms Foster said: "Confidence is not helped if people in the party are unclear about where the party stands on the Joint Declaration and what assurances were given to the leadership on the Royal Irish Regiment.
"It is time we had clarity, honesty and straight talking in this process. It is also time that we rejected this declaration."
Democratic Unionist Party leader Rev Ian Paisley said it was unbelievable that Mr Trimble was trying to distance himself from the joint declaration.
"Not for the first time Mr Trimble's judgment and analysis of the political situation has been proved to be flawed," the North Antrim MP said.
Sinn Fein's Mr Gerry Kelly hit out at the UUP leader for refusing to hold elections to the suspended Stormont Assembly until the IRA went out of business while defending the Royal Irish.
He said: "It's ironic that on one hand David Trimble has demanded the pull down of the institutions and the denial of democracy on the basis that he wants one combatant disbanded.
"Now he's claiming that another combatant force cannot be disbanded."
PA