President Bush's special envoy to Northern Ireland, Dr Mitchell Reiss, has said the issue of photographic verification of IRA decommissioning can still be resolved, as efforts to rescue the peace process begin to wind down until the new year.
Dr Reiss proposed the idea included in the Government's final document that photographs of decommissioning be published after devolution was established. This was a compromise between the republican position opposing photographs and the DUP stance demanding publication of photographs before the party shared power with Sinn Féin.
Dr Reiss told BBC Radio Ulster that he and the British and Irish governments and the parties were exploring a number of ideas that might yet allow for photographs but would avoid any sense of humiliation.
While there are concerns that it could take until after the British general election, expected in May, before the next major push for agreement, Dr Reiss said he and the governments were not giving up on the chance of getting a deal before May.
Dr Reiss said the first meeting between Chief Constable Mr Hugh Orde and Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams, held in the run-up to the publication of the governments' proposals, which he lobbied for, was encouraging.
"It sent a very good signal that Sinn Féin is interested in making sure that the policing institutions are up to the standards that they are calling for, over time. I was very pleased about that. I believe the Chief Constable was very pleased with how that went."
He said there was an economic price for not having a formal peace deal. "It is very difficult for foreign investment to come into Northern Ireland if there is an uncertain political environment. And that costs the people here jobs, it costs them their future, the future of their children as well." During his visit to Northern Ireland last week Dr Reiss also met the Orange Order and members of the family of murdered solicitor Mr Pat Finucane.
Meanwhile, the SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, has called for greater transparency about the negotiations leading up to the publication of the British-Irish blueprint for restoring devolution.
Mr Durkan complained that the proposed comprehensive agreement introduced automatic exclusion without debate of any party that dissented from the voting mechanisms to elect the first and deputy first ministers and their 10-member Executive.
"The governments say that it was not the DUP that put automatic exclusion into this deal. We want to know who did, and why. Why does any party want others to be automatically excluded especially when this 'comprehensive agreement' is meant to end all the problems and difficulties of the last few years? Surely the public is entitled to some transparency about this?" he added.
"The DUP have been given secret clarification on over 40 separate issues from the British government. Apparently no other party has seen this clarification. We are demanding that it be published and that the public have the chance to see it too."
SDLP Assembly member Mr Dominic Bradley called on the British government to proceed with demilitarisation plans despite the failure of the blueprint. "There is a duty on the British government to take all possible steps to bring about demilitarisation," he said.
"I have repeatedly said that the rights of the people of South Armagh and of other areas to live in their homes free from intrusive watch towers, masts, and deafening helicopter noise should not be used as bargaining chips in political negotiations."
