The Northern Secretary has said he believes political progress can be made this week when the North's politicians meet during St Patrick's Day celebrations in Washington.
Mr Peter Mandelson said the trip could be more than just a social occasion. "I'm going there to have very serious discussions with all the people, representatives of all the parties, who will be present there," he said.
Senior figures from the Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the SDLP will travel to the US later this week. Talks will be held on the fringes of the celebrations.
Mr Mandelson again appealed for paramilitary decommissioning yesterday. He said those retaining weapons were holding back political progress and there could be no long-term political stability with stockpiles of illegal arms and paramilitary organisations "able to second guess a politician if and when they please".
Speaking at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, Mr Mandelson said: "We have got to take one step and put in place one confidence-building measure after another so that everyone has that sense of clarity and certainty that we are going forward to a durable and unbreakable peace."
People needed to know that political institutions established were permanent and that "nobody has a secret plan in their inside pocket - or a gun in their belt - that they can pull out at some later stage down the road".
The community had to be reassured there was no returning to the violence of the past - "the war that everyone wants to put behind them". When people could be certain about the future "we will know we are really going places".
The SDLP yesterday held separate meetings with Sinn Fein and the UUP at Stormont. Speaking afterwards, Mr John Hume said dialogue was the only way forward. The UUP security spokesman, Mr Ken Maginnis MP, blamed the British and Irish governments for the upsurge in paramilitary activity since the suspension of the executive.
He said the recent violence was "a direct consequence of two governments having shamelessly failed to display courage and integrity in the wake of the republican movement's failure to adapt to the democratic process".
Sinn Fein MP Mr Martin McGuinness claimed that by not moving forward on demilitarisation, the British government was in breach of the Belfast Agreement.
"It is almost six years since the IRA cessation yet we still have military bases on top of people's homes in Belfast."
The anti-agreement Northern Ireland Unionist Party yesterday held talks with Mr Mandelson. Party leader Mr Cedric Wilson described it as a stormy meeting. He expressed concern that the Northern Secretary would rescind the suspension of the executive without IRA decommissioning taking place beforehand.