The British Prime Minister has said he believes an agreement to salvage the North's power-sharing government is possible at talks set for next week but that failure would force a change of tack.
Northern political leaders are to meet on September 16th to 18th at Leeds Castle for what has been billed by Dublin and London as a last chance to save the power-sharing structures set up under the 1998 Belfast Agreement.
"I believe that a deal is possible," Mr Tony Blair told a news conference today. "If we don't get one at Leeds Castle then I think we've got to look for another way forward," he said, without elaborating.
"It's pretty simple. Most people in Northern Ireland say the IRA have got to stop the violence completely and absolutely, no more ifs, buts and ambiguity, and the unionists, if they do do that, should go into government with them," Mr Blair said.
Mr Blair stressed there would be no half-measures when it came to the IRA giving up violence, which it must do "completely and verifiably".
"We can't be in a situation where you say 'Well as long as there is not a bombing campaign being targeted at Britain then so-called punishment beatings and all the rest of it are somehow legitimate,'" he said.
"If we want to make this peace lasting . . . there has to be an understanding that all forms of violence and the threat of violence have to cease."