The British government has invited the former prime minister, Mr John Major, to play a pivotal role in the campaign to ensure a Yes vote in the Northern Ireland referendum on May 22nd.
As the push to ensure a majority vote in favour of the peace deal began in earnest yesterday, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, confirmed he had asked his former political rival to go to Northern Ireland to secure support for the Yes campaign.
Mr Major is said to be considering the request.
Mr Blair spoke to Mr Major by telephone at the weekend from Spain, where he is on holiday with his family, to discuss his possible role.
Speaking from Spain yesterday, Mr Blair paid tribute to Mr Major's commitment to Northern Ireland: "I want to express my gratitude for everything that he has done and to discuss with him the ways in which he can help over the next two weeks because there is a lot of respect for him in Northern Ireland. I think it would be good if he could play a part."
With President Clinton expected to visit Northern Ireland after he attends the G8 Summit in Birmingham on May 15th-16th, Mr Major's support and a possible visit to the North by Tory leader Mr William Hague will boost the government's Yes campaign.
And underpinning the deal brokered at Stormont on Friday, the Chancellor, Mr Gordon Brown, is expected to visit Northern Ireland shortly to discuss with political leaders government plans for a unique economic package to develop the economy.
As details of Mr Major's role in the referendum campaign emerged, however, he warned that if Sinn Fein decide to take seats in a Northern Ireland Assembly, progress on decommissioning weapons had to be under way to make the peace settlement work.
"Clearly you cannot go into a democratic assembly with armalites under the table. You simply can't do that. So there is going to have to be progress on decommissioning.
"Sinn Fein, I have no doubt, will have difficulty with their own supporters over this and it is one of the difficulties they will have to wrestle with in the next few weeks," Mr Major said on television.
Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, highlighted the difficulties his party faced in endorsing the settlement.
On the same programme, Mr McGuinness said the settlement should be given "fair wind" when the party comes to consider it at its ardfheis in Dublin this Saturday.
People were still making up their minds about the settlement's detail. "I think they have looked at the detail of the document and they have seen areas which will be of concern to them and they have seen also areas which they believe hold out great potential. I think what we have to do is come to all of this in a balanced way."
The Progressive Unionist Party leader, Mr David Ervine, told GMTV that many unionists were "nervous" about the settlement, but he still predicted a Yes vote in the referendum.
"It will be on the basis that there is nowhere else to go, that all that is being offered to us by the alternative is more of the same pain, sadness, depression."