The Stormont talks will enter a new phase of detailed negotiations on Monday morning based on the Propositions on Heads of Agreement put forward by the British and Irish governments. However, politicians have expressed fears of further paramilitary violence, and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has called for a period of calm.
Mr Ahern moved to allay Sinn Fein fears about the exact strength of the North-South body. He insisted it would be a stand-alone entity with executive powers.
Final arrangements are being made to move the talks to London for an intensive three-day session from January 26th, and the parties will move to Dublin for three days in mid-February.
Speaking on behalf of the three independent chairmen, Senator George Mitchell told reporters: "We are greatly encouraged by the events of this week at these talks."
The participants had agreed "to proceed promptly to serious negotiations" based on the proposals from the two governments, even though some parties expressed reservations about elements of the document.
The Strand One working group on internal Northern Ireland arrangements meets at 11 a.m. on Monday, and the Strand Two, or North-South, working group meets the following day.
"Each strand will have before it the full document, and the agenda for those meetings will be set by the chairmen of the strands ", according to Senator Mitchell.
"While obviously some hard negotiating lies ahead, we're hopeful that it will produce what the vast majority of the people of Northern Ireland want, an agreement that will establish permanently peace, stability and reconciliation."
In Japan the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, said: "What is important is that we have moved from symbolism to substance. We're now talking about a real document with real items in it, a real framework upon which we can build."
The Taoiseach responded to republican concerns that the proposed North-South ministerial council would be a toothless institution subject to other bodies. He insisted it would be "a stand-alone body with executive powers."
He called for a period of calm to permit negotiations to get under way in earnest. The potential for agreement by the parties existed, "if elements that are outside the talks - particularly paramilitary elements - do not continue to do what they have been doing for the last three weeks, where they are coldly assassinating individuals who are being picked out on either side of the community."
The SDLP chief negotiator, Mr Seamus Mallon MP, warned: "There are elements of evil outside the talks which can be used to threaten the process."
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, warned of a "Doomsday scenario" of intensified loyalist violence.
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, said he was looking forward to serious negotiations next week. He was still waiting for Sinn Fein to "engage with reality".
Mr Nigel Dodds of the Democratic Unionist Party, which is boycotting the talks, condemned the British-Irish proposals as "Framework Document Mark Two".
Ahern reassures Sinn Fein, Parties put different `spins' on NorthSouth council: page 7 Analysis by Frank Millar: page 14