The Sinn Fein chief negotiator has said only a miracle can save the Belfast Agreement.
In the most downbeat assessment of the peace process by a Sinn Fein member for some time, Mr Martin McGuinness said that, with less than two weeks to the next deadline for suspending the Assembly or calling new elections, "it will need nothing less than a miracle to save the Good Friday agreement."
Mr McGuinness said on BBC Radio Ulster: "It will require the British Prime Minister, who is the key player in all of this, to recognise that under no circumstances should he be selling anyone short in terms of the implementation of the agreement."
A Sinn Fein spokesman also confirmed that the party president, Mr Gerry Adams, would be visiting Cuba but the date had yet to be fixed. The visit will not be in the next three weeks and, referring to the next deadline for suspending the Assembly, the spokesman said: "Whatever [Northern Secretary] John Reid would do it would be before Gerry goes".
Mr McGuinness's comments came ahead of the visit by the US special envoy, Mr Richard Haass, to Britain and Northern Ireland. Mr Haass is due to meet Dr Reid in London today before travelling to the North, where he will meet representatives of all the main parties.
He is expected to discuss the dispute surrounding Holy Cross School, but sources stressed this did not mean the wider issues of the peace process would be neglected.
It was unclear whether Mr Haass would travel to the North this evening or tomorrow, but he is expected to stay at least until Wednesday. He will meet Sir Reg Empey and Mr Seamus Mallon, the acting First and Deputy First Ministers.
He will also meet delegations from the UUP, DUP, Sinn Fein, the SDLP, Alliance Party, Women's Coalition and PUP.
On RTE Radio yesterday, Mr Mallon said the SDLP would not follow in the "slipstream" of any other party in any future negotiations but would make its own decisions. He described his party's endorsement of the latest proposals on reforming the police service as a decision made on the merits of the case and one which showed the differences between the SDLP and Sinn Fein.
He said that he could not understand why other pro-agreement parties were unwilling to move forward on what was "probably the most central part of the Good Friday proposals".
Mr Trimble meanwhile denied reports he was planning to leave his post as Ulster Unionist Party leader as reported in the Sunday Times.