THE deep divisions within the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) look set to widen this weekend after two of the party's three rebel MPs delivered angry speeches directed at the party leadership.

Jeffrey Donaldson, addressing a 12 July demonstration in Crossgar, Co Down, singled out David Trimble during an outspoken speech in which he accused his party leader of risking the destruction of the party by refusing to accept criticism of his policies. Accusing Timble of pursuing a vendetta, he said that the UUP could implode if the impasse was not resolved.

Donaldson's broadside came as a surprise because it was widely believed that he would use yesterday's platform to make some kind of rapprochement.

Fellow dissident, the Rev Martin Smyth was also not in a conciliatory mood. He claimed that opponents of the Good Friday Agreement within the UUP had been "demonised" more than terrorists. Smyth said that opponents of the agreement had a "legitimate and democratic point of view" but that the party refused to heed their views.

"We do not speak for ourselves, we represent the views of hundreds of thousands of ordinary and disaffected unionists. Are all these people to be similarly labelled?" Earlier, a senior UUP proagreement MP, Reg Empey, appealed for a resolution. In an interview with BBC Radio Ulster, he said that instead of fighting the enemies of the UUP, the party was in danger of causing untold damage to the UUP itself.

Empey, who abstained in the decision to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Donaldson, Smyth and David Burnside, said he had no leadership ambitions and reiterated that the party must stand behind Trimble's leadership.

DUP leader Ian Paisley attacked British prime minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, claiming that the recent joint declaration was designed to push the north of Ireland into a united Ireland.

Meanwhile, a memorial to five people gunned down in a south Belfast bookmakers shop 11 years ago was vandalised yesterday as the city prepared for 12 July. Police were investigating the desecration of the Hatfield Street memorial to the victims of the Sean Graham betting shop massacre in the lower Ormeau.

Paint was splattered over the memorial in the sectarian flashpoint area at around 7am yesterday. A man was seen driving away from the scene.

Five people, ranging in age from 15 to 66, were gunned down in the bookmakers in February 1992 by the Ulster Freedom Fighters.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland has urged anyone who witnessed yesterday's vandalism of the memorial or had information to help detectives in Musgrave Street with their investigation.