The Democratic Unionist Party seems likely to exercise its right to take control of two departments of government in Northern Ireland, as provided by the rules of the Assembly and the provisions of the Belfast Agreement.
But DUP sources insist that any ministers nominated by the party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, would not sit in the Executive alongside Sinn Fein, and would refuse to take any part in the North-South Council comprising ministers from Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Senior British government sources last night said such a scenario had been anticipated in the final stages of the multi-party negotiations, and that the Belfast Agreement made provision to deal with it. Specifically, the agreement empowers the First and Deputy First Ministers to make alternative arrangements should any minister decline to discharge his or her functions on the North-South Council. However, if that suggests the way would be open to the DUP to set its own terms for participation in the new arrangements for government in Northern Ireland, anti-agreement campaigners anticipate that a refusal to be bound by collective decisions of the Executive could eventually face Mr David Trimble with the embarrassment of seeking the DUP's expulsion from office.
Dissident Ulster Unionist MPs at Westminster this week have been anticipating Mr Trimble's potential embarrassment with relish. However, DUP sources insist that no firm decisions have been made about the tactics to be adopted when the Assembly reconvenes in September.
The question of whether or not to appoint ministers is only one of the tactical considerations exercising DUP, UKUP and Ulster Unionist opponents of the agreement, as they anticipate mounting Dublin, SDLP and Sinn Fein pressure on Mr Trimble to agree to the appointment of the Executive in "shadow" form in late September or early October.
Intense discussions are continuing behind the scenes about an eventual realignment within unionism, and the possible creation of a new unionist party. While officially maintaining that such talk is "premature", well-placed sources estimate that at least four Ulster Unionist MPs would be prepared to resign should Mr Trimble enter the Executive with Sinn Fein before securing the decommissioning of IRA weapons.
Estimates about the number of potential defectors within the UUP's Assembly party vary between six and 10, with seven the number to give the anti-agreement bloc the 60 per cent of the combined unionist total needed to block the agreement.
One indication of the seriousness of the discussions about unionist realignment was provided this week by Mr Peter Robinson, the deputy leader of the DUP. He tabled an amendment to the Northern Ireland Bill providing that "if the number of seats in the Assembly which are held by members of one or more political party reduce or increase for any reason to such an extent that it alters the number of ministerial offices entitled to be held by a party" the distribution of ministerial portfolios should be reapplied in accordance with the rules laid down.
While the focus on realignment rests primarily on the possibility of a significant Ulster Unionist split, unionist sources last night pointed out that should the DUP, UKUP and the three Independent Ulster Unionists come together, their combined total of 28 - equal to that of the UUP - would force a reallocation of ministerial posts to their advantage.