The Rev Ian Paisley has held talks with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London about the resumption of power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
Ian Paisley
Emerging from No 10 after more than an hour of talks, Mr Paisley said: "We have had our meeting with the Prime Minister; we've covered a great deal of ground.
"Our talks will continue over the weekend - I think that's all I can say to you tonight," he said.
Concern is growing in government circles as to whether the Rev Paisley will deliver his party in time to meet Monday's devolution deadline.
Earlier today, Mr Paisley claimed the financial package for the North being offered by the British government was not enough to meet the region's economic needs.
Mr Paisley described Britain's £51 billion package over 10 years as "stingy", accusing Chancellor of Exchequer Gordon Brown of a slight of hand over claims he had found an extra £1 billion, noting £400 million of it was actually Government money.
Speaking to the annual conference of the Federation of Small Business in Belfast, Mr Paisley said: "I would go so far as to contend that the financial package is unfair because the UK Exchequer is getting off lightly in proportion to the capital investment on offer from the Republic of Ireland".
"The Treasury has to realise that it has to be generous, not stingy in this regard and this slight of hand which the Chancellor used to put the money in with that of the South of Ireland's (money) and then tell the people we're doing a good job, we need more than Republic of Ireland euro, we need the British Exchequer to start making sacrifices for the people of Northern Ireland."
The DUP leader said: "Progress has been made in some areas but I do not believe that there's anything in the present proposals ... which will lead to the step change in the economy here that is needed."
With Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain setting a deadline of midnight tomorrow for the DUP to confirm they will nominate Mr Paisley as First Minister, pressure mounted on the party to give the green light to power sharing.
DUP sources insisted there were still a number of issues to be resolved before the party could commit itself to power sharing by Monday's deadline at tomorrow's meeting of the 120-member party executive in Belfast.
In particular the DUP has pressed for greater clarity from Sinn Fein about its attitude to the police and for Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown to produce more funds for the devolved executive.
Yesterday party MP Gregory Campbell said he believed the deadline stipulated by the governments could not be met.
The British government was understood to putting pressure on deputy leader Peter Robinson amid fears that Dr Paisley could lack key allies at tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the party's executive.
A Westminister spokesman warned that Assembly members if they failed to form a power-sharing administration on Monday, would not receive a single penny for their work.
"The parties should be under no illusion," he said.
As the DUP deliberated over whether to go into a power-sharing government, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern urged the party to work with ministers south of the Border for the benefit of the whole island.
Mr Ahern said: "The case for close, all-island co-operation is as strong and as incontrovertible as the case for closer co-operation on climate change.
Mr Ahern told a Chamber of Commerce lunch in Dundalk that politicians north and south of the Border could hand prosperity on to the next generation through a Stormont Executive and Irish Government working together. He urged Northern Ireland's politicians to secure the peace on Monday.
"It's time now to move on and to deal with the other pressing issues that lagged behind during those years when so much political energy was invested in constitutional issues. "The partnership between the British and Irish Governments has been the backbone of this process from its outset.
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said tonight that there could be no halfway house for devolved government. "Either there is devolution or there is not," he said. "No flexibility exists. People often want to buy time for difficult decisions but the decisions taken by those who negotiated the St Andrews Agreement Act are now coming home to roost.