British prime minister Tony Blair was keeping in close contact with the intensive negotiations at Stormont Castle last night aimed at breaking the deadlock between Sinn Féin and the DUP over policing.
Mr Blair on his return from the Middle East yesterday kept briefed on the talks which Northern Secretary Peter Hain and his senior officials held with Sinn Féin and the DUP.
British, Irish, Sinn Féin and DUP sources said that both sides to the DUP/Sinn Féin standoff on policing were engaging in a genuine attempt to end the logjam to enable Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams call an ardchomhairle on policing before Christmas Day.
Such an ardchomhairle would be designed to result in a special Sinn Féin ardfheis on policing by early to mid-January. Agreement on policing by then could facilitate the implementation of the St Andrews Agreement and meet the March 26th deadline for the restoration of full devolution. Failure to resolve the policing issue by early to mid-January could trigger the collapse of the St Andrews Agreement.
"We have to wait and see how this ends up but these are serious efforts to find a way through the problems," said a senior London source last night.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern and their officials were being briefed on developments although the talks were being directed by the British side. Mr Hain left the talks for Britain yesterday evening but is due back at Stormont today.
The negotiations chiefly revolve around efforts to devise a formula mutually acceptable to Sinn Féin and the DUP on a model and timeframe for devolving policing and justice to a restored Northern Executive.
Much of the talks effort focused on whether a moderated version of a DUP proposal on how an Executive department of justice might operate could end the Sinn Féin/DUP impasse. The DUP last week proposed that a minister for justice could only be elected on a 70 per cent cross-community Assembly vote, which with the checks and balances of the Belfast Agreement means in reality neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP could take the post.
It therefore could lead to the compromise of an Assembly member from the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP or Alliance being appointed minister for justice.
Talks around this issue continued late last night. "It's about streamlining the DUP proposal and finding the right words," said a senior talks source.
This was a reference to Sinn Féin concerns about elements of the DUP proposal and a Sinn Féin requirement from DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley to provide some form of statement that he would be amenable, in accordance with the St Andrews Agreement, to the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive. Late last night all sides said the work was continuing, and could run into today, and that while it was too close to call, a deal was possible.
The Sinn Féin leadership held a special meeting on the issue in Dundalk yesterday evening before senior figures such as Mr Adams returned to the talks at Stormont, where the party tabled its own proposals on solving the policing issue.
"A deal can be done," said a Sinn Féin spokeswoman last night. "Gerry Adams has made clear at all times that if he feels it is right, he will immediately call an ardchomhairle leading to a Sinn Féin ardfheis on policing."