The prospect that next week's sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly would be cancelled has receded following negotiations between the First and Deputy First Ministers to resolve their differences.
Disagreements between Mr David Trimble and Mr Seamus Mallon and their respective parties on crucial matters of procedure in the Assembly on Monday were said last night to be near resolution.
The men are scheduled to present a joint report to the Assembly on the agreement reached on December 18th on new government departments and North-South bodies. The Ulster Unionist Party was concerned that the form in which this report was presented might result in the automatic establishment of the Northern Ireland executive.
If the report were presented with a recommendation that the new ministries be endorsed by the Assembly in a cross-community vote, this would, according to some observers, trigger the executive's establishment.
Unionists have been campaigning for some weeks for the Assembly merely to "take note" of this aspect of the Trimble-Mallon report. But nationalists are anxious to have the ministries fully approved by the Assembly to allow the formation of the executive to proceed.
The Committee Advising the Presiding Officer, which consists of representatives of different parties in the Assembly and is chaired by the Initial Presiding Officer, Lord Alderdice, is due to meet at 9 a.m. today. Lord Alderdice is expected to be in a position after this meeting to release the text of the motion to be put forward by Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon.
Standing Orders of the Assembly require the Presiding Officer to publish the agenda for Monday's meeting by 10.30 a.m. today, to allow the statutory minimum period for submitting amendments.
At about 5 p.m. last night, with differences between Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon still unresolved, Lord Alderdice circulated the parties' Chief Whips with a notice advising them that if this morning's deadline was missed, Monday's sitting could not proceed as planned.
Under normal circumstances, the agenda would have been supplied to the Presiding Officer last night, to allow time to have it printed. The implicit warning in Lord Alderdice's letter seems to have concentrated the minds of the parties and helped to narrow their differences.
Although no details were being released last night, there were indications that key issues had been fudged. There was speculation that the Assembly would be asked to approve and endorse the new North-South bodies, but a milder form of words would be used in relation to the new ministries.
This formula would allow unionists to claim that the Assembly was merely taking note of the ministries and therefore the executive was not being triggered.
The key issue for unionists on the ministries was that they should not be endorsed by a formal cross-community vote because this would strengthen the hand of those who wish to see the executive, including Sinn Fein ministers, formally established.
A senior unionist declined to comment on reports that the Northern Secretary, Dr Mowlam, had refused to give the UUP an assurance that, in the event of a cross-community vote, she would not convene the executive.
Meanwhile, the UUP has announced its front bench for the Assembly. Principal members include Mr Trimble; Chief Whip, Mr Jim Wilson; Economic Policy, Mr Dermot Nesbitt; Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Sir Reg Empey; Regional Development, Mr John Taylor; British-Irish Council and North-South Ministerial Council, Dr Esmond Birnie; Policing and Home Affairs, Mr Michael McGimpsey.