The Stormont talks have adjourned until January 12th after the parties failed last night to break the deadlock on formulating an agenda. All participants were "disappointed" at the lack of progress.
After a long day of discussions, the parties broke up without agreeing on the key issues to be resolved, amid mutual recriminations over who was responsible for the setback.
Despite the impasse, they tried to brighten the gloom at Stormont yesterday, pledging they would return in the new year to inject vigour and pace into the process.
"There is still all to play for," said the North's political development Minister, Mr Paul Murphy. "I still think this is the best opportunity we have ever had to achieve peace and a political settlement."
While parties generally agreed, there was no disguising the inter-party friction over the failure to determine a new agenda and a fresh format for the talks.
Ulster Unionist sources blamed Sinn Fein for refusing to accept a "realistic" agenda. They also criticised the Government for failing to put pressure on Sinn Fein, and accused the SDLP of breaking a deal hammered out last week. The sources said the SDLP reneged on an agreed SDLP-UUP agenda. ein to accept the paper.
Nationalist sources said Sinn Fein did not like the "balance of the agenda", believing that too much emphasis was being placed on a possible internal settlement in Northern Ireland.
It wanted stronger focus on demilitarisation, prisoners and North-South "executive" bodies, to which unionist objected, the sources added. Unionists feared that if such issues were on the agenda, the general public and more particularly their unionist opponents might believe these issues were agreed rather than down for negotiation.
Sinn Fein and the SDLP rejected the unionist allegations.
"The SDLP stands by its word, and will continue to stand by its word," said the SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon.
"People should be aware that in situations like this there is a strong temptation for people to justify their positions by blaming others. It is not a recipe for creating trust," he said.
Implying that unionists were too constrained by what might appear on the agenda when these were mere headings for negotiation Mr Mallon said: "We are trying to create consensus on issues which do not bind or command attachment from any party."
He hoped that progress would be made in the new year. "There is no option but to make the political process work," he said.
Similarly, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said his talks team was prepared to allow issues on to the agenda to which his party ein would be hostile, as long as issues to which unionists might also be hostile were down for negotiation.
"We went into this phase of talks with the very clear understanding that there could not be a Sinn Fein wish-list or a unionist wish-list, that there had to be an inclusiveness which allowed other people's issues to be put down for resolution," he said.
His disappointment, he said, could be measured by the fact that agreement could have been achieved with a reasonable approach. In an obvious reference to the main matters for future discussion being North-South executive bodies versus an internal solution, Mr Adams said: "We could have had a list which any child in Ireland could write tomorrow. We have always said that every issue has to be on the agenda, and we can't just have our issues on the agenda."
