Senator George Mitchell was said to be "taking the temperature" of the parties last night as the review of the Belfast Agreement entered its 10th week. The talks chairman is believed to be assessing the protagonists' willingness and capacity to strike a deal.
A further report on the decommissioning issue from Gen John de Chastelain is believed to be in preparation, with a view to breaking the logjam. It would have the effect of bolstering confidence that the paramilitaries were serious about dealing with the weapons issue, provided that the context was right and that all parties accepted their responsibility to create such a context.
The general is expected to report positively on his contacts with the various sides in the conflict. Senator Mitchell was understood yesterday to be encouraging the parties to be receptive to any positive accounts of progress on the decommissioning issue.
Meetings which took place yesterday were said to be of crucial importance - the most critical in the review so far. Senior political sources said that these exchanges would shape the outcome of the review, whether it would lead to the establishment of the executive or result in a "soft landing" which would effectively amount to failure.
Political insiders said: "The deal is there, but nobody is prepared to say it is set in stone." It was felt that if agreement was not secured rapidly the prospects for a successful review would evaporate very quickly.
Despite a low-key atmosphere at Castle Buildings, insiders said that the talks had reached their decisive phase.
Senator Mitchell arrived in the early afternoon. It is understood that he met first with a group of British and Irish officials and subsequently held separate meetings with Sinn Fein, initially, and later with the Ulster Unionists. The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, left at 7.45 p.m. for a constituency meeting in Banbridge, Co Down.
There were unconfirmed re ports of a tripartite meeting involving Senator Mitchell, Mr Trimble and the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams. Close observers said that contacts between the parties had been positive.
While the elements of a deal were said to be "in place", sources stressed that it could "slip away at any time". Republican sources emphasised that this was the critical week and that Mr Trimble would have to decide one way or the other.
Insiders said that Senator Mitchell was "gauging his own next step". They emphasised that he would not have met the US President, the British Prime Minister and the Taoiseach last week if he was reporting imminent failure.
The strict confidentiality of the talks ensured that few details were available. However, the notion of an IRA interlocutor being appointed to work with Gen de Chastelain was being widely mentioned. It was also clear that the general and the decommissioning body he chairs form one of the central elements of the package under consideration.
Conveying the atmosphere in the discussions, a talks insider said: "In this thing you take one day at a time." Another said it was too early to tell if the review would succeed: "People are still talking." Both sides were said to be sincere in their efforts to secure agreement.
Another source said: "There seems still to be real engagement. There is much less talk of a soft landing."
Newspaper reports that some form of IRA decommissioning was imminent gained considerable currency among a news-starved media, but were sharply dismissed by republicans and greeted with considerable scepticism by senior unionists. "We'll believe it when we see it, or when Gen de Chastelain sees it", sources close to the UUP leadership said.