Unionists in 'useful' talks with arms chief

David Trimble is expected to attempt re-election on Friday

Ulster Unionist Party assembly members Peter Weir and Pauline Armitage have described their talks with General John de Chastelain to discuss the IRA arms move as "useful".

Mr Weir and Mrs Armitage met the head of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning (IICD) in Belfast on Wednesday.

Both say they got answers to some of the questions they had regarding IRA decommissioning.

The party leader, David Trimble, needs their backing if he is to be re-elected as Northern Ireland First Minister on Friday.

We are going away to reflect upon the answers that we have got and to go over the matters in some detail

Peter Weir MLA

The first and deputy first minister will have to gain a majority of support within both the unionist and nationalist blocs in the assembly to be elected.

Mr Weir indicated the meeting would be important in deciding how he and Mrs Armitage would vote in the election for first minister on Friday.

"We are going away to reflect upon the answers that we have got and to go over the matters in some detail," he said.

"I think that will form obviously an important part of our consideration as to how things progress over the next few days."

Speaking after the meeting, Mrs Armitage said progress had "possibly" been made.

Concerns

However, both assembly members insisted they would not be taking up Sinn Fein Education Minister Martin McGuinness's offer to meet to address their concerns on IRA decommissioning.

So far, both Mrs Armitage and Mr Weir have said they are not in a position to vote for Mr Trimble.

They have said their concerns centre on whether the IRA is committed to a process of putting all of its weapons verifiably beyond use.

The Progressive Unionist Party's Billy Hutchinson, who also met General de Chastelain on Wednesday, said his party has yet to decide if it will be supporting David Trimble in the assembly vote at the end of the week.

He said many PUP members have had concerns about recent political developments.

Mr Trimble resigned in July because of an absence of IRA decommissioning and then pulled his ministers out of the Northern Ireland Executive two weeks ago to put further pressure on republicans.

He decided last week that he would bring his party back into the Stormont power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein after the IRA move.

Narrow margin

This decision was backed by the Ulster Unionist Party executive last weekend.

However hardliners in the party have collected the signatures necessary to call an extraordinary meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council within three weeks.

Mr Trimble has consistently won backing for his policies at recent UUC meetings, but by an increasingly narrow margin.

Leader elect of the nationalist SDLP, Mark Durkan, who is hoping to win the assembly's backing to take the deputy first minister's post said all Ulster Unionists must support Mr Trimble at the election.

The Women's Coalition has said its two members are prepared to re-designate themselves as unionists to ensure Mr Trimble succeeded.