President Bush's special envoy to Ireland has completed his final round of talks with the Northern parties with an upbeat message, yet warning that much remains to be done.
Mr Richard Haass, on his 13th visit, denied the political process was in crisis although he outlined how much work remains.
He said it was intolerable that paramilitaries remain and he blamed their activities for much of what he termed unionist frustration as reflected in the scale of the DUP vote in last week's Assembly election.
He said he was struck with the progress that has been made and at the reduction in violence. He compared today with the situation 10 years ago "and I marvel at it".
However, he added: "For all this progress, Northern Ireland is still not where it should be. We should not have private armies in the year 2003 in the middle of Europe. There's no place for that sort of thing. We should have the full normalisation of politics, we should have a police force that enjoys the support of all citizens and all the political leaderships." Current political difficulties were not insurmountable, he said.
Denying again there was a political crisis, he said: "This is what you would expect in the aftermath of an election. Now, people are focused on how to move from where we are to the next step. The review [of the Belfast Agreement] will be central to this process."
He said the US administration still supports the Belfast Agreement, adding: "We obviously stand by the fundamentals of that agreement, the principle of consent, the need for power sharing, the need for political parties to reach out and work together." He said this was something the parties did "with one another, not to one another, much less against one another".
Mr Haass recognised the significant vote for the DUP last week, interpreting the increase in support as a call by ordinary unionists for change. He said they had felt "some frustration with the status quo".
He said unionists wanted to see normalisation of politics, adding: "How the DUP will react to the opportunity they have been given, we will have to see. The DUP is going to have to decide, like all the parties, what it is they want to recommend."
Mr Haass's presence in Belfast prompted different signals from the DUP. The party leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, told Downtown radio he would be glad to see the back of Mr Haass. But Mr Peter Robinson, who led the DUP in talks with Mr Haass yesterday, commended his role.
Mr Haass sidestepped Mr Paisley's remarks. "This process is a lot larger than personalities. It's a lot larger than my personality and my role and I would suggest that's true for everybody else."