The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, has effectively set Easter week as the new deadline for the establishment of the Northern Ireland executive, warning that nobody wants to enter the marching season and the European elections without prior advance on this front.
Her implicit admission that tomorrow's deadline will be overrun came yesterday during her visit to Dublin Castle for the co-signing of four treaties supplementing the Belfast Agreement.
The new treaties formally provide for the establishment of the six North-South Implementation Bodies, a North-South Ministerial Council, a British-Irish Council and a British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference.
After the signing, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, described the event as "historic" but said one piece of the jigsaw remained.
"We are all aware that there remain great difficulties surrounding the formation of the Northern Ireland executive. But these difficulties can, will and of course must be surmounted. The promise of the agreement is now so tantalisingly close to becoming a reality that we cannot allow ourselves to contemplate failure," the Minister added.
Expressing hope that goodwill from the party leaders would lead to the "difficult issues" of the executive and decommissioning being tackled, Dr Mowlam said that "in the timescale we have", nobody wanted to go into the marching season and the elections without progress being made on the establishment of the executive.
Asked what she thought of comments by the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, that the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, was trying to "collapse" the agreement, Dr Mowlam said fears always existed that "someone is not playing fair". However, it was important to "build on good news stories".
The "building blocks" were now in place that would "enable us with determination and goodwill and courage to move forward". The legislation allowing for the establishment of the various institutions - which passed through the House of Commons yesterday and will go through the Oireachtas later this week - was "crucial" to the agreement's ultimate implementation.
It was important that the two governments and all the parties involved should "take the extra steps necessary" to ensure the legislation and treaties were built upon and made to work, so that "the whole process slowly develops and grows", Dr Mowlam said.
Responding to criticism of the treaties expressed by the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, the Northern Secretary said Dr Paisley had a democratic right to oppose, but there was a difference between "being consulted and getting your own way".
Dr Paisley had earlier said there had been a lack of consultation in the preparation of the treaties.
The treaties establishing the North-South Ministerial Council, a British-Irish Council and a British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference were described by officials as "of a purely technical character".
However, the treaty establishing the implementation bodies is more substantial. It covers inland waterways, food safety, trade and business development, special EU programmes, language, and aquaculture and marine.
Commenting on a report that a secret Sinn Fein document represented the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, as "the biggest danger" to the peace process, Mr Andrews said this was "a piece of rubbish". Mr Ahern had been one of the "great engines" behind the process and history would be good to him, the Minister said.