Negotiations on the impasse over the policing issue are continuing at Stormont tonight.
A Sinn Féin source said is was expected the talks would continue well into the night.
Prime Minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern have identified Sinn Féin support for the PSNI and a Democratic Unionist Party commitment to power sharing as the key ingredients of their bid to revive devolved government by next March.
The Rev Ian Paisley has signalled on several occasions he will share power with Sinn Féin if the IRA ends paramilitary and criminal activity and the party publicly commits itself to supporting the PSNI, the courts and upholding the rule of law.
British, Irish, Sinn Féin and DUP sources said last night that both sides to the standoff on policing were engaging in a genuine attempt to end the logjam to enable Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams call an ardchomhairle on policing before Christmas Day.
Such an ardchomhairle would be designed to result in a special Sinn Féin ardfheis on policing by early to mid-January. Agreement on policing by then could facilitate the implementation of the St Andrews Agreement and meet the March 26th deadline for the restoration of full devolution.
Failure to resolve the policing issue by early to mid-January could trigger the collapse of the St Andrews Agreement.
The DUP and Sinn Féin were accused by the SDLP tonight of trying to pass the buck over the issue.
SDLP Policing Board member Alex Attwood claimed the two parties were trying to shift the blame for the impasse onto other parties.
The West Belfast MLA was commenting amid claims that the British government withdrew a proposal today to present a plan to an Assembly subgroup that the SDLP and Ulster Unionists would accept senior and junior posts in a new Stormont Justice Ministry.
The paper was not presented, however, to the Programme for Government Committee's sub-group on policing and justice, with the UUP and SDLP insisting they would not sign up blindly to any proposal.
The Assembly sub group today signed off its report on proposals for the devolution of policing and justice. Sources said the report, which should be released on January 3rd, would merely re-state the parties' positions.