The US special envoy to Northern Ireland has called for the cancelled Assembly elections to be held as soon as possible.
Mr Richard Haass met Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble in Belfast yesterday and is to meet the leaders of the other local parties today over the postponement of the Assembly elections, which were scheduled for May 29th.
They will not take place before autumn at the earliest.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Brian Cowen, and the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, are to meet in London today to discuss the peace process.
"What we want is elections as soon as possible and we want the political institutions at Stormont to get up and running," said Mr Haass. "What specific actions we need the parties to take - republican, nationalist, unionist - I will have a better sense after the next 48 to 72 hours".
Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness earlier said his party was insisting the elections be held in June and argued the current political situation was "dire".
"I think it is vitally important that at the meeting between Brian Cowen and Paul Murphy that they come out of that meeting making it very clear that the next stage in the process is the holding of an election in June," he said. "I think anything other than that will be seen by many as a dismal failure."
The only party that opposed an election next month was the Ulster Unionists, he said.