The DUP appears to have developed a policy option that could yet see the party break Monday's devolution deadline - while firming-up its commitment to enter a power-sharing government with Sinn Féin in May.
This emerged last night after a "tough" meeting between British prime minister Tony Blair and a DUP delegation led by party leader the Rev Ian Paisley yielded only the promise of more behind-the-scenes negotiations continuing late into the night and resuming early today.
Dr Paisley was accompanied by deputy leader Peter Robinson, North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds and North Antrim Assembly member Ian Paisley jnr.
With the clock ticking to tomorrow's midnight deadline, Mr Blair is hoping the DUP is engaged in brinkmanship ahead of today's scheduled meetings of party officers followed by the party's executive.
The prime minister will be in Berlin this evening for EU birthday celebrations, where he hopes to hear finally that Mr Robinson in particular has been persuaded to set aside concerns about party unity and that the DUP will meet the current legislative requirement to form an executive on Monday.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain is also pressing for a decision tonight, so that he can sign the necessary order restoring the Northern Ireland Assembly. In order to do so Mr Hain requires confirmation that Dr Paisley is ready to accept the office of first minister, and to nominate ministers to an executive at a meeting of the Assembly at Stormont on Monday.
However, while plans are in hand for a first meeting of a new executive on Tuesday - which officials say is necessary to defer controversial water charges - some Whitehall sources conceded yesterday that the process could still "crash" at this point.
And the mood of uncertainty deepened last night with the suggestion that the DUP might think to "turn the tables" on the British and Irish governments at the last gasp by committing to powersharing while effectively setting its own timetable for its commencement. It is believed this tougher option emerged after Mr Blair flatly rejected Mr Robinson's demand for emergency legislation that might have seen an executive appointed on Monday and then effectively "suspended" or "frozen" for a "transitional period" of two months.
Official sources refused to be drawn on the issue last night, while at the same time questioning the quality of any commitment that might be offered by the DUP to actually form an administration on a specified date in May. In advance of last night's Downing Street encounter they had also been adamant that Mr Blair would not concede to demands for new legislation, and that any "transitional" arrangements giving a new executive a "breathing space" to bed-down would have to be within the existing legal framework.
The sources said this was because if a transitional period was actually to be presented by the DUP as an additional "testing period" for Sinn Féin, that by definition would be conditional and so no confidence could be placed in any promise that DUP doubters would be willing to see an executive "go live" even in May.
Opposition sources yesterday challenged Number 10's insistence that, in any event, new legislation was not an option, because the House of Commons is set to rise for the Easter break on Thursday. The Irish Timeswas told that the government could if necessary abbreviate the recess and have it sit on Friday. However, the underlying political calculation appeared to be simply that Sinn Féin would not participate in the nomination of an executive on Monday which was to be effectively suspended come Tuesday.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams appealed to the DUP "not to wobble", adding: "Fortune favours the brave and I wish the DUP well in their deliberations."