The Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, has restored the North's institutions after a 24hour suspension, saying he was hopeful the measure would "buy more time" for the peace process.
Dr Reid said he believed the parties were now "tantalisingly close" to reaching agreement. The final implementation of the peace process was "within our grasp", he told the BBC's Break- fast With Frost programme.
Insisting that the one-day suspension had been the best option available to him, Dr Reid said calling an election, as demanded by Sinn Fein and the DUP, would have only served to further polarise the parties.
"The alternatives were either a prolonged suspension of any discussions because of the polarisation and paralysis that results from an impending election or a prolonged suspension by the British government which would have had very damaging consequences.
"Choosing to suspend for one Saturday in August during the holiday season when the Assembly wasn't sitting - I think the vast majority of people would have thought it was common sense to do the latter."
He said it would be "deeply disappointing" if the IRA decided to break off contact with the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning. "I certainly hope that no one walks away because it has bought time for movement."
Writing in yesterday's Sunday Life, Dr Reid said he had hoped to avoid suspension, but added: "What was needed was a breathing space for the parties to enable them to move forward and find closure on the remaining outstanding issues . . . If all those who support the [Belfast] agreement refresh their commitment to the process, far from this marking a break, it will provide a platform for the full implementation of the agreement."
He said the issues of policing and putting arms beyond use were closer to resolution than ever before. "In short, we are tantalisingly close to a comprehensive solution to all the outstanding issues. There will be those who will try to deflect us. There will be those who, in clear defiance of the will of the people, will try to derail the process.
"We cannot allow them to do that. It has taken immense courage on the part of politicians to get us to this point. We cannot turn back now. We must use the short time that has been bought to finish the job."
A dissident Ulster Unionist, Dr Philip Weir, of the Ulster Young Unionist Council, yesterday placed the onus for salvaging the peace process on moderate nationalists, saying it was up to them to make it clear to Sinn Fein that they could not re-enter government without a prior resolution of the arms issue.
"Nationalists cannot continue underestimating the difficulties endured by unionism through the current process. Unionists have exhausted every avenue to allow paramilitaries to demonstrate peaceful credentials, and thereby proved we welcome a cross-community administration in a peaceful new Northern Ireland free from the threat of the gun.
"My challenge to so-called moderate nationalists is to persuade unionists you have the same desire, and show the courage to side for once with fellow democrats rather than Sinn Fein."