The Ulster Unionist leader quelled erroneous speculation that discussions between his party and Jim Allister's party yesterday had resulted in a voting "pact".

He explained it was, in fact, an agreed "strategy" for maximising the unionist vote in which they would both encourage their supporters to transfer votes to other unionist parties – and not necessarily each other.

Sir Reg contacted the News Letter to set the record straight that this is "definitely not a pact" after a surprise joint Empey-Allister statement was issued.

It revealed discussions at Stormont between the UUP and TUV yesterday.

After the meeting, party leaders Sir Reg Empey and Jim Allister took the unusual step of issuing a joint statement.

The statement said: "With the European election, as the next scheduled election, coming up in June (2009), we agreed on the priority of retaining two unionist representatives in Europe.

"This should be the overriding priority of all unionists in respect of this election. Such is only attainable by full utilisation of transfers between the unionist candidates.