British and Irish officials meet today to start compiling a non-negotiable "final package" which the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, believe could break the political deadlock in Northern Ireland.
It is hoped the document, which will deal with arms, policing, demilitarisation and safeguarding the institutions of the Belfast Agreement, can be concluded over the next two weeks so that the parties will have time to consider the proposals before the effective deadline of August 12th.
Arms and policing remain the most obdurate issues for resolution, but British and Irish sources said a deal could be done. "This will be about equality of pain, and equality of gain," said one talks insider.
On IRA arms which, with policing, has primarily deadlocked the political process, Mr Ahern and Mr Blair are trying to create a situation whereby putting weapons beyond use is not viewed as a precondition. "This is a matter that should be left to the IRA and Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body," said one source.
Mr Ahern and Mr Blair are also trying to make amendments to the Police Act that will meet the bulk of nationalist demands without totally alienating unionists. Some of these changes will provide for former paramilitaries being able to join the Policing Board or the local district policing partnerships.
Mr Trimble indicated on Saturday that he may be powerless to prevent this happening but insisted that former paramilitaries must not be allowed join the new policing service.
Last night the UUP MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson MP, a member of the party's negotiating team, said his party was not in the business of trading off concessions in return for disarmament.
"Weapons must be rendered permanently unusable and permanently unavailable. Talk of sealed arms dumps isn't enough," he said. "Our bottom line is that there cannot be progress on any of the other issues until there is actual decommissioning and therefore we will want to see in any paper that emerges whether there are clear proposals for actual decommissioning to occur."
Mr Ahern is flying to Brazil today but will be kept fully briefed on developments by his officials, said a Government spokeswoman. There is still no definite time for presentation of the document to the parties but "obviously August 12th is hanging over everything", said one source.
If the parties cannot agree to a way forward by that date the British government must then decide between suspending the Assembly and Executive, perhaps temporarily, or calling fresh Assembly elections, which all pro-agreement parties including Sinn Fein say they do not want.
Mr Ahern and Mr Blair rejected any portrayal of the week-long talks at Weston Park in Shropshire as a failure. At Weston Park on Saturday they insisted the time for negotiation was over and neither leader demurred when one journalist characterised the package as a "take-it-or-leave-it" document.
