Failure by the DUP and Sinn Féin to reach agreement will force the British and Irish governments to produce their own terms for a final devolution settlement in Northern Ireland later today.
That was made clear yesterday as the so-called "hothouse" talks here yielded what Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey described as "a Mexican stand-off" between the DUP and Sinn Féin over which side should move first to break the continuing impasse over power-sharing and policing.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair, with senior British and Irish officials, were last night busily drafting their "best guess" of a sequenced deal which would resolve the stand-off issues of policing and power-sharing.
Mr Blair's official spokesman maintained confidence that both parties were willing "to move forward on the principles of power-sharing and support for the rule of law".
However, the spokesman said the talks had also confirmed that there was "caution" on each side that the other did not intend to "deliver". And he confirmed that if that caution held and prevented agreement, Mr Blair and Mr Ahern were prepared to "call it" later today and put forward their own "best guess as to the best way forward" in time to complete an agreement by the November 24th deadline.
Amid continuing media speculation about suspected British "flexibility" over the deadline, Mr Blair's spokesman insisted that St Andrews was "not a staging post", that "there will not be another round of talks" and that "November 24th remains the deadline".
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said he believed that - despite seemingly diametrically opposed positions on key issues - the parties were "moving slowly, inexorably . . . toward an agreement", while conceding that the two governments would "make a judgment" after further talks going on "late night and into the morning".
However, Mr Ahern stressed the Government's absolute commitment to the November deadline, insisting that if it was missed, London and Dublin would "proceed with Plan B".
He also made it clear that any delay in implementing an agreement, if reached by November 24th, should be a matter of weeks and not months.
Mr Ahern told The Irish Times it was wrong to conclude that resolving Sinn Féin's position on policing had become "a pre-condition" to a November agreement to restore power-sharing - while acknowledging that the two governments were now "trying to square the conundrum".
That conundrum was again laid bare after Sinn Féin's Martin McGuinness said party president Gerry Adams could only seek a special ardfheis to consider the policing issue once the institutions of the Belfast Agreement were "up and running".
A senior party source later confirmed that Mr McGuinness had been speaking for the party when he demanded DUP "help" to resolve the issue by agreeing a timetable for the devolution of policing and justice powers and the model for the Stormont ministry to discharge those functions.
DUP sources maintained that an "upfront" commitment to support the PSNI remained a prior requirement for any party entering an Executive.
British and Irish negotiators said it was still difficult to determine whether these were tactical positions and whether both parties would modify their stances to allow for a compromise agreement on the two issues.
"The fact is this can only work if the parties are jumping together on power-sharing and policing," said a senior Irish source involved in the drafting of the paper.
"We are trying to choreograph the sequencing on policing and power-sharing so that step by step each party will provide assurances to the other that they are genuine about resolving these matters," he added.