Draft standing orders on the appointment of a new Northern executive provide for a temporary three-hour adjournment of the Stormont Assembly to allow a late decommissioning gesture by the IRA.
The orders have been circulated to the Assembly parties by the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, who said she was "ready to call an Assembly meeting on March 10th" where the appointment of ministers could take place.
She would take a final decision on this over the next few days, after consultation with the parties. In the absence of decommissioning, Dr Mowlam is expected to postpone the sitting of the Assembly until the parties have returned from the St Patrick's Day events in Washington.
When the Assembly eventually does convene, a dramatic touch will be added to the proceedings by the provision for Lord Alderdice, as Initial Presiding Officer and in consultation with the parties, to defer the start of ministerial nominations for three hours.
Stormont sources said this was specifically to allow for a last minute change of mind by the IRA on decommissioning. It is understood the Ulster Unionists sought provision for an indefinite delay but neither Dr Mowlam nor Mr Seamus Mallon would agree to this.
If there is no decommissioning within the three-hour adjournment period, Ulster Unionist sources said their party leader, Mr David Trimble, intended to propose a motion to exclude Sinn Fein from the executive.
To be successful, such a motion ???????????ein would require cross-community backing among unionists and nationalists and SDLP sources said last night they would not support such a proposal.
UUP sources said in that event they would ask the British government to invoke the review clause in the agreement. If London agreed, this would mean an indefinite suspension of the Assembly to allow multi-party talks to take place.
Meanwhile, sources close to republican thinking said the prospect of IRA decommissioning had, if anything, become even more remote during the last few weeks. The Taoiseach's views on the subject, as reported in a recent Sunday newspaper interview, had so incensed republicans that even a statement from the IRA to qualify its earlier hardline comments on decommissioning was now out of the question. In the current climate, any IRA statement would be even tougher than the organisation's previous utterances on the subject.
Attention is focusing more and more on the gathering of Northern politicians at the White House on St Patrick's Day. The National Security Agency official with day-today responsibility for Northern Ireland issues, Mr Larry Butler, has concluded a five-day visit to London, Dublin and Belfast where he met government and party leaders and civil servants.
The most likely date for convening the next sitting of the Assembly is thought to be March 29th and there is a strong expectation that Mr Tony Blair and Mr Bertie Ahern will travel to Stormont for the final stages of negotiations.
In a statement accompanying the Standing Orders, Dr Mowlam said power could be transferred only "on a basis which commands cross-community support", which was being interpreted as a signal that if unionists declined to take part in an executive there would be no transfer of powers.
The continuing hardline position of the UUP was evident in a statement by the party's Assembly team which "dismissed suggestions that a form of words on disarmament or a timetable for a future date could deal adequately with the issue of Sinn Fein/IRA weapons".
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said the circulation of Standing Orders "opens the door for the setting-up of the Executive and will allow for the ministers to be appointed without further delay".
A Democratic Unionist Party delegation led by the Rev Ian Paisley told Dr Mowlam she should not be bringing forward Standing Orders for the appointment of an executive "when it is clear that Sinn Fein/IRA are digging in their heels over the whole issue of decommissioning".