Mr David Trimble has availed of a visit by the British Foreign Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, to Belfast to assert that devolution is firmly anchored in Northern Ireland.
The North's First Minister and Ulster Unionist Party leader was scathing of anti-Belfast Agreement politicians after he and the SDLP Deputy First Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, met Mr Straw at Stormont yesterday.
There is concern that in the coming weeks Mr Trimble could be forced by anti-agreement elements in his own party to pull out of the Executive, possibly forcing the collapse of the Assembly and the institutions of the agreement.
However, Mr Trimble was robust in defending the agreement yesterday.
"We operate here, myself and Mark (Durkan), on the basis that devolution is here and will continue to function. I cannot think, actually, there is any serious doubt about that," he said.
"I am quite confident that devolution is here to stay.
"Whatever noises off stage you may hear from time to time, the truth of the matter is that so-called anti-agreement elements are fully committed and fully participant in the arrangements here.
"They don't pose a serious threat, except through possibly their own incompetence," Mr Trimble added.
Mr Straw was in Belfast to promote the benefits of European Union membership. He said that by June next the British government would decide whether to hold a referendum on signing up to the euro.
He proposed the creation of an EU constitution, written in "plain language", and a subsidiarity watchdog, which should comprise MPs from all member-states, and whose function would be to monitor unjustified EU legislation.
