Mr David Trimble will tonight meet with his rivals within the Ulster Unionist Party.
The party is meeting to set a date for a meeting of its 860-member ruling council next month.
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UUP leader Mr David Trimble
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Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and Mr David Burnside have requested the Ulster Unionist Council meeting to address Mr Trimble's attempts to discipline them over their resigning of the party whip at Westminster in June.
They are demanding the lifting of the disciplinary proceedings against them, a position that will have been strengthened considerably by a High Court judgment last month that ruled the action was invalid.
However, the beleaguered Mr Trimble may play his own hand by tabling his own motion calling for a UUC to support the disciplinary action.
Whatever happens, many see the meeting as his final chance to reinforce his fragile grip on the party leadership. He saw off a direct challenge from Mr Donaldson in June, winning a vote by 54 per cent to 46 per cent.
However, a sterner test may be waiting in the wings, as a new pretender for his throne is gradually emerging. For many within the UUP, the former minister Sir Reg Empey is beginning to be seen as an acceptable compromise between the opposing Trimble and Donaldson camps, whose polar stances on the Belfast Agreement are threatening the very existence of the party.
Sir Reg is staunchly pro-Agreement, but is regarded by many within the party as capable of healing whatever rift exists with Mr Donaldson and his support base, reuniting the party in the process.
He, along with former Belfast lord mayor Mr Jim Rodgers have already been canvassing UUP members in an attempt to find middle-ground between the two factions.
Howeever, they suspended these efforts yesterday on hearing of the demand of the dissidents for a UUC meeting.
"We are in no doubt that the only way that the Ulster Unionist Party canresolve its difficulties is by members talking and working towards agreement," Sir Reg said."This was true in July, is true today and will be true after any UUC meeting.There is no other way."
Whatever happens, the UUP desperately needs to act in the face of the burgeoning electoral threat of the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party or face annihilation at the polls.