Nationalists have accused the Ulster Unionist leader of trying to bring down the Belfast Agreement after Mr Trimble's party gathered sufficient backing for a motion to exclude Sinn FΘin from the Executive.
Both a UUP and a similar DUP motion calling for Sinn FΘin's exclusion from the institutions will be before the Assembly on Monday. If the UUP motion fails - as is likely in the absence of cross-community support - Mr Trimble will withdraw his three ministers from the Executive, rendering it unworkable.
A Sinn FΘin MP, Ms Michelle Gildernew, said yesterday that Mr Trimble had demonstrated his determination to wreck the peace process. "At least David Trimble is being more honest about what he is actually about, which is not only trying to renegotiate the Good Friday agreement and all of the institutions under it, but trying to wreck the political process."
Ms Gildernew said incidents such as the nightly sectarian clashes in north Belfast were a "direct result" of the instability created by unionist actions. She denied it was up to the IRA to save the institutions by making a start to decommissioning.
"I think the initiatives that have been taken have been very courageous and we have to give the IRA credit for the positions they have taken. But nothing at this stage is going to save the agreement as far as David Trimble is concerned because he is determined to bring it down."
Speaking at a fringe meeting at the British Labour Party conference on Tuesday night, the SDLP's Agriculture Minister, Ms Br∅d Rodgers, appealed to Mr Trimble to "think again" about tabling the motion. She insisted her party would resist any move by unionists to exclude Sinn FΘin.
Meanwhile, an announcement by the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, that the British government was about to introduce legislation making sectarianism a criminal offence has been widely welcomed. Ms Rodgers said the move was long overdue but added that legislation alone would not solve the problem of sectarian crimes.
"We must all redouble our efforts to tackle this issue if we are ever to create the new society we all want. We must also recognise that sectarianism is present in all of us: Catholic and Protestant, nationalist and unionist, wealthy and poor, young and old, male and female."