The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, yesterday underlined the Ulster Unionist Council's support for the Northern Ireland Agreement, saying he looked forward to a resounding Yes vote in the referendum on May 22nd.
After Saturday's vote by his party's general council, which endorsed his support of the Northern Ireland Agreement with 72 per cent in favour, Mr Trimble said he believed the people of Northern Ireland would welcome the agreement "fairly favourably".
However, the UUP MP, Mr Willie Ross, illustrated the level of dissent within the party by warning the leadership it had made an "error of judgment" and that it would come to regret the UUC's endorsement of the Northern Ireland Agreement.
With the support of the UUC fresh in his mind, Mr Trimble told ITV's Dimbleby programme that a Yes vote was now likely, and that he believed that "one way or another we are going to get it right".
It would not be enough, however, to have a narrow majority in favour. "Anything below 60 per cent, we'd be in difficulty. If you get a Yes vote which is above 70 per cent, then you're fine, but I think that if you get a Yes vote in between those two then there would be an element of judgment involved in it," he said.
But with six UUP MPs opposed to the agreement, Mr Ross sought to remind his leader that in his view the agreement was a "vast departure" from the party's policy and could still be rejected by many unionists in Northern Ireland.
Mr Ross criticised the UUP leadership for not preparing its members for the "downstream consequences" of the deal, but fell short of predicting Mr Trimble's removal as leader of the party.
Mr Ross, the MP for East Derry, told BBC's Breakfast With Frost: "There already are a majority of MPs who oppose this deal, but the leadership of David Trimble is not in doubt at the moment. That question was settled five weeks ago for this present year. It will not come up again until March next year, and therefore that issue doesn't arise.
"Sinn Fein were spending a great deal of time selling their strategy to their population and to their supporters . . . something in fact which this party has not done, and the real vote on this will come, not perhaps in the referendum . . . I believe the real test will come in the elections following."
The doubts of grassroots unionist would be strengthened further once they looked beyond the detail of the deal and saw power in Northern Ireland "shared out" and "delivered" by the SDLP and Sinn Fein.
In a year's time it was highly probable that Mr Trimble would still lead the party, Mr Ross said, but he predicted greater dissent within the party and in Northern Ireland in the coming months.
He said a number of people at the UUC meeting had not fully read the agreement and as the details unfolded "you will find more and more people adopting my point of view". Mr Trimble's position was boosted, however, by the support of his deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, who said his brand of "new unionism" would appeal to Catholics in Northern Ireland who wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom.
The former chairman of the multi-party talks, Mr George Mitchell, told the BBC's Breakfast With Frost that the UUC vote was a "vindication of the courage and determination" of Mr Trimble and the UUP.
On the same programme the Sinn Fein vice-president, Mr Pat Doherty, explained it was taking the party longer to come to a decision on the agreement because different questions were being asked of its members on each side of the Border.
"We have to examine the whole agreement, the whole document, and we have to examine the difficult questions we are being asked North and South," he said.
Speaking on GMTV, the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, called on all politicians to give their support to the deal.
Mr Hume said those who were opposed to the agreement were trying to defend their "very traditional position" and that it was common sense to recognise that that was not a solution.
Challenging the DUP, the United Kingdom Unionist Party and the UUP dissenters, he said: "Let's hear what your alternative is."
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, speaking during his tour of the Middle East, criticised Dr Paisley, "and others".
They haven't an alternative, there are no positive proposals at all to put forward from their side: and people in Northern Ireland have just got to make up their minds. Is this the person that offers the way forward in the future or not? "Obviously, I don't think so."