The parties central to breaking the logjam over decommissioning and the formation of an executive were setting out firm negotiating positions for the short intense period of talks ahead as the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach were preparing to travel to Belfast this afternoon.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, and the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, were holding to their respective diametrically opposed positions on disarmament and the appointment of ministers to an Assembly cabinet.
Mr Adams also warned that if the Belfast Agreement fell there would be no chance of decommissioning. Despite their apparently entrenched positions, Mr Trimble and Mr Adams said they still believed a deal could be done by Mr Blair's deadline of next Wednesday.
As was the case prior to the signing of the Belfast Agreement last year Castle Buildings, Stormont is again the venue for the coming days of critical talks. A media marquee has already been erected outside the building, reflecting the local and international interest in whether the agreement can be salvaged.
Some hope is being invested in Gen John de Chastelain's report on the prospects of paramilitary decommissioning providing a way out of the impasse on arms. If this report contains what amounts to an IRA commitment that it will disarm by May next year, then it is expected that pressure will be exerted on Mr Trimble to accept Sinn Fein into an executive on the basis of this pledge, but without any actual prior disarmament.
Neither Mr Trimble nor Mr Adams was providing any pointers yesterday that such an arrangement would be acceptable. The report is due to be published on Tuesday, the eve of Mr Blair's deadline.
Mr Trimble said that a written acknowledgement of the decommissioning obligation would not represent significant progress. He was maintaining his demand for some prior decommissioning, and indicated that a commitment to disarm would not be sufficient.
Of republicans he said, "For them to come to the point of explicitly acknowledging what the document (the Belfast Agreement) they endorsed last year clearly says isn't really, from our point of view, significant progress."
Mr Trimble appeared to be toughening his stance on IRA disarmament when he asked the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, for their assessments of the current state of the paramilitary ceasefires.
"Do we have an effective ceasefire at the moment?" he asked. "It would appear that the republican movement is heavily engaged in violence and is threatening more violence." Mr Trimble looked forward to the arrival of Mr Blair and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern today, and to their expected return to Stormont for intense negotiations early next week. He believed the current stalemate could be overcome but, implicitly referring to the republican movement, added that "it is a question of whether some people have the will".
Mr Adams said that while he wanted to see decommissioning of all weapons, paramilitary disarmament was not an imperative to Sinn Fein taking up its two ministries in the executive. He repeated that Sinn Fein could not achieve decommissioning; that was for the armed groups.
"But I know this for certain: that if the agreement goes, whatever chance there is of getting decommissioning is gone," he said. "So those who are genuinely trying to bring this about, who are genuinely fixed by this issue of decommissioning, will only be able to achieve it through working the agreement.
"I want all aspects of this agreement. I don't cherry-pick. We are committed to the whole issue of decommissioning in terms of this agreement as we are to all other aspects of it," added Mr Adams. He appealed to all the talks participants to "give a wee bit of room and space" to their opponents to enable the full implementation of the agreement.
The North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, was yesterday hoping that Gen de Chastelain's decommissioning body could end the deadlock.
"There will not be a precondition in terms of decommissioning. There is an obligation to decommission and that obligation must be translated into practical reality through the international commission led by Gen de Chastelain," said Mr Mallon. He warned that continuing political obduracy could stretch the patience of the allies of the peace process.
