Mr Tony Blair is under mounting pressure to force the pace of political developments in the North after being warned that the decommissioning issue has the capacity to wreck the Belfast Agreement.
The stark warning was spelt out to the British Prime Minister yesterday by Mr Seamus Mallon, the Deputy First Minister, and by Mr Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein president, at the Labour Party conference in Blackpool.
Mr Mallon later heard Mr David Trimble, the First Minister, insist that "the process is not at risk, there is not a crisis" when they held a joint press conference after separate talks with Mr Blair. But while both men held out the hope that General John de Chastelain, the head of the International Commission on Decommissioning, and Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness might find a way forward, it was clear there was no agreement between them as to what that would entail.
While Mr Mallon spoke of the need to find a way "around" decommissioning - enabling it perhaps to be dealt with "in a more scheduled way than it has been" while allowing the structures under the agreement to be developed - Mr Trimble said he was determined "to go through it."
Earlier yesterday Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon received standing ovations from delegates after addressing the conference.
For Mr Mallon "the message of the conference is that nobody is going to allow this agreement to fall. Whatever happens, this agreement is not going to be destroyed by any one issue."
Mr Trimble agreed, saying there would be "immense pressure" on the paramilitaries "to carry out their obligations under the agreement" and begin decommissioning. "I am quite sure the republican movement can deliver." He said he wanted to see them break "the psychological barrier" and begin decommissioning because "decommissioning is the practical working out of the consent principle".
The spotlight today falls on Belfast, where Mr Trimble and Mr Adams will have their third meeting in as many weeks, and on Dublin, where the Taoiseach is due to meet Mr Mallon to discuss the continuing impasse over decommissioning and the creation of the Northern Ireland executive.
But with Mr Adams insisting that decommissioning "is not in Sinn Fein's gift to deliver" - and the deep differences between Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon barely concealed at their press conference - the certainty is growing in political circles that determined action by the British and Irish governments is necessary to break the deadlock.
With the two governments seemingly convinced there is no prospect of early IRA movement on decommissioning, reliable sources last night accepted that the October 31st deadline for identifying areas for North South co-operation, and implementation bodies, was unlikely to be met.
However, before meeting Mr Blair yesterday, Mr Adams made plain his view that "if David Trimble doesn't implement the agreement, then there is no agreement".
After 50 minutes with Mr Blair he said the issue should not be taken to the deadline; that "the formula and process" required were to be found in the words and spirit of the agreement, arguing "it isn't time that's a question here, it's political will."