THE North's political parties are to hold a series of discussions at Stormont over the next two days in preparation for the Mitchell review which restarts on Wednesday.
The first meeting today is understood to be between the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the SDLP. The fringe loyalists, Alliance and the Women's Coalition will be in separate talks.
Senator Mitchell announced on Saturday that his review would be extended until next week. He is currently drawing up proposals aimed at breaking the deadlock on decommissioning and the establishment of the executive and is due to arrive back in Belfast on Wednesday afternoon.
Sources said his review is expected to continue until Friday. UUP, Sinn Fein and SDLP negotiators yesterday said there was still hope for the process. An SDLP negotiator, Mr Sean Farren, said: "Achieving agreement on the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement has now taken an important step closer to realisation.
"With relationships between the parties so much improved, the next few days will reveal whether the parties can summon the will to succeed. People have peered over the precipice and they don't like what is on the other side. I am cautiously optimistic."
UUP and Sinn Fein sources said there was still reason to believe that a breakthrough was possible.
One senior talks negotiator refused to say whether new papers had been exchanged between Sinn Fein and the UUP. "This is a very sensitive time," he said. "It is better to give out no details which could harm the process."
Sinn Fein sources said the party was still insisting the Belfast Agreement be implemented and an executive set up immediately. They said any compromise involving the establishment of a shadow executive - with Provisional IRA decommissioning needed before the body would assume full powers - was unacceptable.
However, other republican sources said they believed that while this remained Sinn Fein's official negotiating position, there was "room for compromise and manoeuvre".
A UUP negotiator, Mr Dermot Nesbitt, told the BBC's Breakfast With Frost programme yesterday: "The mood has changed. The overall ambience is better. I wouldn't want to put it stronger than a glimmer of hope. The underlying problem still needs to be resolved." A Sinn Fein negotiator, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, told the same programme there had been "an improvement in the atmosphere". Asked if there were possibilities of a breakthrough, Mr McLaughlin said: "We are in a situation which can be described by all the political parties as a society which is moving out of conflict.
"That is very, very significant. That is an achievement in itself, but we know it is not sufficient to ensure there is never again a resort, a return to violence, and there is work to be completed. There is still time and there is still time to meet the timetables of the Good Friday agreement."
In a statement on Saturday, Senator Mitchell said there should be "no false optimism" about the likelihood of success for his review as "significant differences" remained between the parties. However, he added: "I am persuaded that the parties are making a sincere and serious effort to bridge those differences. To assist them in that effort, over the next few days I will be working on suggestions for their consideration."
The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, said he was neither optimistic nor pessimistic.
But he added: "The parties trust each other more now than they have before. But those issues that divide them are serious issues which they have got to tackle and they have got to overcome with some further hard talking in the week to come. I believe they will."