Trimble 'still has job to do'

Mr Trimble will face a leadership challenge on Saturday

David Trimble has insisted he still has unfinished business as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.

Mr Trimble faces a leadership challenge at a meeting of the party's ruling body, the Ulster Unionist Council, on Saturday.

Party rules state that the leader must seek the ruling council's endorsement when it meets on Saturday.

Two people have put their name forward to challenge Mr Trimble for the leadership.

Mr Trimble has survived a number of challenges to his leadership in recent years.

Amid a turbulent period for the UUP, the party was overtaken as the main unionist grouping in last November's assembly election by the Democratic Unionist Party.

Anti-Agreement Jeffrey Donaldson's defection to the DUP brought the party's Stormont contingent to 33, nine more than the UUP.

Mr Oliver said he was in the race to become the next UUP leader

Mr Trimble told BBC Radio Ulster on Friday that he wanted to see his party meet the challenges of the political process and work to make Northern Ireland a better place.

He said the decision was in the hands of the delegates, but that there was a job to finish.

"Our duty to ourselves, to the party, to the people, is to strive to produce a better Northern Ireland, and to do that as unionists within the United Kingdom - I think I can tick those boxes," he said.

Mr Trimble refused to make any predictions about the outcome of the leadership challenge.

"That's in the hands of the delegates, and we're getting so close to the AGM that this is the point at which I stop making predictions," he said.

"One of the difficulties at this stage is that if your predictions aren't right, people sure as heck remember them."

Meanwhile, David Ervine of the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party said that while Mr Trimble had made a valuable contribution to the union and the peace process, he had taken unionism as far as he could and should step aside.

"I certainly think that he has confounded some people. He indicates that he's made of sterner stuff than was first considered," he said.

Mr Hoey says he will stand aside if elected as leader

"I think what keeps David Trimble going, it's a fear almost that unionism will retreat, a fear that unionism will not take its place in the modern world."

Mr Trimble has walked out of the Good Friday Agreement review over Sinn Fein's continuing participation in the talks amid alleged IRA activity.

Leadership battle

On Wednesday, Portadown businessman and member of the Orange Order Robert Oliver announced that he would be putting his name forward in the leadership battle.

Mr Oliver, who is a delegate of the party's ruling council and treasurer of Mr Trimble's Upper Bann constituency, said he was in the race to win it.

He said Mr Trimble had been unable to deliver stable devolution or a united UUP.

Last week, Coleraine-based management consultant David Hoey said he would run against Mr Trimble.

However, Mr Hoey said if he won the leadership fight, he would stand aside to make way for a new leadership team.