Intensive behind-the-scenes efforts to save Northern Ireland's power-sharing government by achieving IRA decommissioning were continuing tonight.
The next few days are critical if the peace process is to be rescued following the decision of Ulster Unionist Party leader Mr David Trimble to pull his ministers out of the Stormont Executive because of the failure of the IRA to start disarming.
Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness said today the peace process was in "terrible crisis" and determined attempts to achieve a breakthrough were continuing and would continue into next week.
He said: "It is my fervent hope that we can bring about a situation where the Good Friday Agreement is implemented in full at long last."
He said it "remains to be seen" if there would be success.
But he added: "I believe if there is enough wisdom, if there is enough courage and if there is the political will to overcome the problems, they can be overcome."
Republicans are making it clear they don't see the IRA acting on weapons as an issue in isolation. Mr McGuinness said it was "only one aspect of the equation".
They want guarantees from the Unionists that any move on decommissioning would be matched by a commitment to fully operate the Assembly, executive and cross-border bodies without further threats to resign.
They also want the British Government to guarantee the stability of the institutions as well as move to scale down significantly Army bases and operations in Northern Ireland, further amend police legislation, reform the criminal justice system and achieve equality.
The resignations of the three Ulster Unionist ministers and the two Democratic Unionists become effective in six days. But Mr Trimble's party has signaled that if a credible and verifiable start to IRA decommissioning is made within that time, the ministers will return to office.
Mr McGuinness, speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Inside Politics, said the peace process was in a "very serious situation" but said he had a sense that at long last people were "seized with the urgency of the situation and recognise we are in a terrible crisis with the imminent collapse of everything we have worked for over the past decade or so."
The Stormont Education Minister said he "passionately" hoped they could be successful and he was working flat out to that end.
He urged Mr Trimble to "face down" the hardliners in his party and other unionists opposed to the whole idea of the Belfast Agreement.
There was a need to put "clear blue water" between those who supported the Agreement and those who opposed it, he said.
PA