Northern Secretary Peter Hain has put it up to the DUP and Sinn Féin to resolve the pledge of office dispute which forced the postponement of what was scheduled to be a historic encounter between the Rev Ian Paisley and Gerry Adams yesterday.
He warned that if the controversy over when Sinn Féin should sign up to the pledge, which is expected to incorporate a commitment to policing and law and order, was not quickly settled he would wind up the Assembly.
"The parties know that if we hit an immovable roadblock at any time we will dissolve the Assembly and politics in Northern Ireland and locally accountable politics will close down. It is their choice," said Mr Hain.
The British and Irish governments were disappointed that DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley balked at the very first hurdle that the St Andrews Agreement threw up yesterday, particularly as it was to feature symbolic engagement between Mr Adams and the DUP leader. But nonetheless both Dublin and London and the other parties including the DUP said this obstacle could be surmounted.
Mr Hain postponed the programme for government committee meeting when Dr Paisley made it clear he would not be attending because of confusion over when he as prospective first minister and Martin McGuinness as prospective deputy first minister should sign a pledge of office.
Senior Northern Ireland Office and Dublin sources expressed the conviction that the pledge of office involving support for policing would kick in on March 26th when devolution is due to be fully restored.
Dr Paisley, however, indicated that he had a personal assurance from British prime minister Tony Blair and his ministers at the St Andrews talks that he and Mr McGuinness must sign up to this pledge when they become first minister and deputy first minister designate on November 24th.
Dr Paisley said he had a note of such a commitment. "None of these promises are verbal. They are promises which are written down. They know if they don't keep them, these writings will be taken out and pushed down their throats publicly," he said.
Downing Street refused to comment on whether such a side assurance, which is not in the actual St Andrews Agreement, was given. Mr Hain dealt with that question obliquely. "What was or wasn't said, and different parties' interpretation of this, is best decided in private rather than in public," he said.
One potential resolution mentioned by the SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party yesterday referred to a possible interim or "shadow" pledge of office to be made on November 24th. There is a precedent for this as there was a similar "transitional" pledge incorporated in the 1998 Belfast Agreement when Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP deputy leader Séamus Mallon were first minister and deputy first minister.
Neither the DUP nor Sinn Féin would spell out whether such a compromise could work. Privately DUP sources said the issue could be resolved.
Mr Adams also said the issue could be resolved, and that the best way was through direct engagement between Sinn Féin and the DUP. He noted that Dr Paisley had directed his criticism at the British government rather than at Sinn Féin. He believed Dr Paisley was committed to doing a deal. "I take people at their word and I listened very intently to what Ian Paisley said at the close of the St Andrews talks," Mr Adams said, referring to the DUP leader's statement that he kept his pledges.
Meanwhile, the DUP Assembly Group unanimously endorsed the DUP leadership's handling of the St Andrews talks, which was interpreted by observers as a rebuff to DUP MEP Jim Allister's criticism of elements of the agreement.
Mr Allister said the agreement must not only include the pledge by November 24th but that it should also have incorporated a requirement for the disbandment of the IRA, a clear cut mechanism to evict Sinn Féin from the Executive should it default on commitments, restrictions on support for the Irish language, and a ban on civil servants from the Republic applying for senior posts in the North.