The Ulster Unionist Council will meet next Saturday to discuss the latest proposals to reactivate the Northern Ireland Executive. Mr David Trimble made the announcement during a meeting of his party's officers in Belfast yesterday.
The 860-member UUC will meet at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast city centre two days before the two governments' target date for restoring devolution to the North. Mr Trimble will draw up a report which will be discussed at the gathering.
He said yesterday he had not decided what he would be recommending to the meeting. He said he needed clarification on the IRA's offer to put weapons beyond use.
"In the light of all the information that comes available over the course of the next week, I will then consider what recommendation to put to the council," he added.
Mr Trimble said that while the Provisional IRA's statement last week was "interesting" and "appeared to break new ground", it raised as many questions as it answered. "Some of those questions we have been exploring with the British government and with responsible persons such as the de Chastelain commission.
"There are, of course, issues we have been pursuing and continue to pursue with governments quite separate from the questions of decommissioning," Mr Trimble said.
"We are hoping in the days to come that we will be able to obtain more clarity and certainty about how far the IRA statement goes. We hope we will be able to obtain more information from the government on its position on matters which we regard as matters of concern to us."
Mr Trimble said that in light of all the information in the run-up to the UUC meeting, he would consider whether to recommend the deal which could reactivate the power-sharing Executive.
"I must make it clear at this stage that the calling of the meeting does not mean we have committed ourselves to endorsing any set of proposals."
The anti-agreement MP, Mr Willie Thompson, claimed the two governments were trying to push the UUP on the Provisional IRA's offer. "The UUP should demonstrate that they will not be dictated to or taken for granted by Sinn Fein/IRA or either government," he said.
"They must show they are an independent constitutional unionist party that will make their own decision in their own time in what they consider to be the best interests of unionism."
The DUP secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said he was amazed that Mr Trimble was even considering returning to the Executive with Sinn Fein. "Guns were not delivered last time. That is why the Executive was suspended. Mr Trimble is attempting another fudge, another sell-out," he said.
Meanwhile, UTV Live last night reported that the dissident loyalist paramilitary group, the Orange Volunteers, had issued a statement expressing disappointment and anger at Mr Trimble's "betrayal".