A senior member of the DUP today said he believed a deal resulting in power sharing between his party and Sinn Fein would be reached this year.
Jeffrey Donaldson, a member of the Democratic Unionist's negotiating team, said he was optimistic an agreement would be reached on policing and a power sharing executive established at Stormont.
"I think it will happen in 2007 I would be fairly optimistic about that and clearly there are difficulties at the moment. The sooner we can get to that point the sooner we will all be able to move on. There is a huge agenda in Northern Ireland to address at a socio-economic level, there is so much that we can work on here and indeed work together on and lets get down to that job," Mr Donaldson told RTE Radio.
Mr Donaldson was speaking despite warnings from several of his party that Republicans must not just move on supporting the Police Service of Northern Ireland but also hand back the proceeds of crime and be prepared to hand over the people responsible for the murder two years ago of Belfast father of two Robert McCartney.
Last week, Sinn Fein's national executive backed moves by Gerry Adams to hold a special party conference on policing this month. But the staging of a conference depends on the response of the British and Irish Governments and the DUP to Mr Adam's move.
On Wednesday, the party cast doubt on whether the conference could go ahead, after they said they were still waiting for a positive response from the DUP.
The Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has warned the politicians they would be making a huge mistake if they let efforts to revive power-sharing slip because of a dispute over the transfer of policing and justice powers.
He warned if they missed the opportunity there would be no Assembly election on March 7, or devolved government for many years.
PA