The leader of the Ulster Unionist Party Mr David Trimble urged his three rebel Ulster Unionist MPs to "draw back from the brink" today as an internal row threatened to tear the party apart.
Hardliners Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, Mr David Burnside and Rev Martin Smyth may now launch legal action after being suspended over their open defiance to Mr Trimble's leadership.
As the biggest crisis to hit Northern Ireland's largest political party in 30 years intensified, the UUP leader called on the trio not to provoke a full split.
He said: "They need now to draw back from the brink and to think again.
"I want to repeat that again and again. There is no need for this lemming-like rush to the edge."
Tough disciplinary action was taken against Rev Smyth, the party president, Mr Donaldson and Mr Burnside after they resigned the UUP whip at Westminster in protest at Mr Trimble's tactics in the peace process. The move effectively stripped them of all party membership rights and privileges.
The rebels broke ranks following a failed bid to force the party to reject the British and Irish blueprint for putting the Belfast Agreement back on track.
Even though a full split of the UUP now seems certain, Mr Trimble insists he has no intention of resigning. Two of his Westminster colleagues asked him to stand down as the row deepened.
The UUP leader told BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics: "I don't want to see anybody leave. That's been my approach over the last five years.
"I have tried to keep the party together, in fact I have been criticised in many quarters for being too tolerant of dissent within the party.
"I don't mind people having different views so long as they are expressing that within the party and in a civilised manner."
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin oday stepped up pressure for Assembly elections.
National chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin said after a meeting in Dublin of the party's Ard Comhairle that a poll in the autumn would provide a political anchor and a focus for the Ulster peace process.
Underscoring fears that a political vacuum would be emerge unless new elections are held soon, he said party leader Mr Gerry Adams had briefed his Ard Comhairle colleagues on talks he had yesterday with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
"It is out view that a dangerous political vacuum is opening up - the evidence of that is to be seen in the fractious debate or dispute that is going on within the Unionist party, and the simmering problems on the interface areas in the north.
"We are calling urgently for the establishment of definite date."
PA