A heated and difficult meeting of the Grand Orange Lodge is expected in Belfast today when members meet to discuss the agreement reached at Stormont last week and internal reform.
A leading Orangeman, Mr David McNarry, who is also a member of the executive of the Ulster Unionist Party, has publicly backed the agreement.
However, the dissident Spirit of Drumcree group is intent on forcing a vote on the deal, which it says is a sell-out of unionist principles. Mr Joel Patton, leader of the group, has said he will demand that the Grand Lodge rejects the agreement.
Mr McNarry, also a member of the Grand Lodge, has come out firmly in support of his party leader, Mr David Trimble. "I am prepared to go all the way to ensure that Northern Ireland gets a new opportunity," he said yesterday on BBC radio.
The Orange Order will be sending 100 members, elected by county lodges, to the crucial Ulster Unionist Council meeting on Saturday, where a vote will be taken. Mr McNarry said he believes it should be left to each member to decide what to do.
However, Mr Patton said the Grand Lodge would have to discuss the agreement - if no vote was taken it would be interpreted as "tacit agreement" with the deal.
In the past the Grand Master, Mr Robert Saulters, has been critical of the direction the talks process was taking. And Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, an Ulster Unionist MP who is opposed to the deal, is also a leading member of the Order. The views of another UUP MP and Grand Lodge member, the Rev Martin Smyth, are unknown as he is out of the country.
Ulster Unionist sources have expressed concern that the Grand Lodge might publicly oppose the deal. Such a development would add to the pressure on Mr Trimble ahead of Saturday's meeting of the party's 860-strong council.
One of the party's principal negotiators of the agreement, Mr Reg Empey, said on BBC's Newsnight programme last night that a "No" vote on Saturday would probably spell the end of the deal. Meanwhile, there was some doubt last night as to whether a meeting of the Ulster Unionists' parliamentary party would go the ahead tonight or not. Two of the party's 10 MPs were said to be out of the country and two more said they were not aware of a meeting taking place. If the meeting does take place, a majority of the 10 MPs may not back the agreement. Apart from Mr Trimble, only three, Mr John Taylor, Mr Ken Maginnis and Mr Cecil Walker, have publicly declared support for it.
Meanwhile, Sinn Fein's talks team yesterday gave a report to the party's ardchomhairle on the agreement reached at Stormont. The party holds its ardfheis this weekend in Dublin.
The DUP will today open its campaign for a No vote in the referendum on last week's agreement. The party's deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said the distinction between Northern Ireland and the Republic had been "torn away".