The leaders of the North's political parties will gather at Stormont Castle today for urgent talks in an attempt to revitalise the peace process and prevent a slide into further violence.
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, has invited the parties to hold separate, intensive discussions with her. They are entirely independent of the main political negotiations, which are not due to resume until next week.
Meanwhile, UDA and UFF prisoners at the Maze last night voted to withhold their support for the peace process. However, political representatives of the paramilitaries insisted the loyalist ceasefire of October 1994 was still intact.
It is understood that 60 per cent of the 130 UDA and UFF men voted to withhold their support because of their anger over the British government's handling of the process.
Mr Gary McMichael, leader of the UDP, the political wing of the UDA and UFF, said the vote was a clear signal to the government of growing loyalist unease.
The Stormont talks will get under way as the funeral takes place of Mr Eddie Treanor (31), the latest person to be killed in a paramilitary attack. He was shot dead by loyalists on New Year's Eve in a bar in north Belfast.
All the parties have agreed to attend today's discussions, including the DUP and the UK Unionists, who are boycotting the overall talks process.
However, the greatest sign of hope will be the attendance of the Progressive Unionist Party, the UVF's political wing, which has recently been threatening to withdraw from the main negotiations.
The PUP's acceptance could signal that the rift between the party and the two governments is finally starting to mend.
"We will be at the face-to-face meetings with Mo Mowlam. I can't promise anything or say more than that but we will meet her," the PUP's chief spokesman, Mr David Ervine, said last night.
The PUP has complained of being "used, abused and sidelined" in the peace process and about London and Dublin making decisions without consulting it. The party has also demanded urgent action on loyalist prisoners.
But Mr Ervine said he was slightly more optimistic having "listened carefully" to an interview with Dr Mowlam on Sky Television in which she paid tribute to his party's efforts to work for a settlement and admitted that she could have handled certain matters better.
"I think sometimes that I am not good at informing people enough ahead of time about what decisions are being made," she said.
She rejected unionist calls for her resignation, saying it would be a capitulation to splinter groups such as the Loyalist Volunteer Force and the INLA, which were intent on destroying the peace process.
Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, said that if the peace talks failed, the North would face a "catastrophe". But he pledged that his party would remain in the process and that the IRA was committed to its ceasefire.
Ahern stresses opportunity for progress at talks: page 12