UUP view: The Ulster Unionist leader said he sensed yesterday that the discussions would peter out as time passed. Mr Trimble left Hillsborough Castle before 7 p.m., citing engagements in London. Senior colleagues defended his departure even though the British Prime Minister had rescheduled a meeting with Mr Igor Ivanov, the Russian foreign minister and his weekly audience with Queen Elizabeth.
Mr Trimble was low-key about the progress made. He stuck to his line that all that mattered was their requirement of a definitive line from republicans that their war was over.
"A certain amount of progress perhaps has been made, but there is still a lot of work to be done. But we're not going to be grandstanding here but going our ways in order to continue discussions and consultations over coming weeks."
He added: "We have continued to make clear our position. There is no question of us being able to go to an Ulster Unionist Council to look at the question of restoring the institutions unless we have got a clear statement from the IRA about their structure and their future - that they have gone away, that their war is over - whatever terminology they use. That has got to be the message that comes over.
"We also need to have a major decommissioning taking place in a way that will maximise public confidence, and, of course, we need to have an effective system of oversight and monitoring with sanctions so that we can be sure that the governments, who ought to have been the guardians of the process over the last five years, this time will genuinely discharge their functions.
"Those we have continued to make clear to people. I think that any effort to make us change our minds on these points seems to have petered out. Other people therefore have to consider how they adapt themselves to that."
Mr Trimble referred to talks about devolution of justice powers, policing, human rights and equality, OTRs (the on-the-runs) and other questions as "politicking at the margins".
He said Ulster Unionists had been involved in such talks to ensure "that nothing stupid is done". But he added that he couldn't guarantee that stupidity couldn't break out at the Northern Ireland Office on these issues.
He turned down opportunities to attach any significance to the possible postponement of elections scheduled for May 1st, saying his party was ready for them in any event.
He returned to the question of a possible IRA initiative or statement, saying the questions remained whether it would be enough for unionists.
"That's why I have been at pains last week, and particularly in the speech I gave to the Ulster Unionist Council on Saturday, to make sure that they have no excuse if they make a mistake. That is why we continue to urge them [the IRA] to do things in a way to maximise public confidence. We cannot make a judgment as to what we do in response till we see what has happened and we know what the position then is."