The SDLP leadership last night bowed to the seeming inevitability of the suspension of the Northern Ireland Executive within days.
As the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, flew into London for crisis talks with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, the SDLP leader and Deputy First Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, signalled his acceptance that the power-sharing administration was unsustainable in the aftermath of alleged republican espionage at the heart of the Northern Ireland Office.
With the Taoiseach reportedly set to press Mr Blair on the case for fresh Assembly elections rather than suspension, SDLP sources confirmed their preference for an initial cooling-off period, with the elections going ahead as originally scheduled on 1st May next year.
While making it clear that he would not back any motion proposing Sinn Féin's expulsion from the Executive, Mr Durkan also appeared to accept that Sinn Féin had a case to answer following Friday's sensational developments at Stormont and the related arrests and court appearances.
Speaking after his party's meeting with Mr Blair at 10 Downing Street, Mr Durkan said: "The reality is that it is no more tenable to ask the SDLP to support an exclusion motion than it is to ask the Ulster Unionists to continue indefinitely in the institutions [of government\] in these circumstances."
Senior SDLP sources later told The Irish Times that neither Mr Blair nor Dr John Reid had produced the basis on which an exclusion motion might be tabled.
They said their impression was that - barring some unforeseen breakthrough at today's showdown between Mr Blair and Mr Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president - the British government was likely to pre-empt Mr David Trimble's Tuesday deadline by opting for suspension.
The sources also said that while they would be ready to fight elections whenever they might be called, elections held against the immediate backdrop of this crisis could produce a result for continuing stalemate.
Mr Durkan urged the British and Irish governments to concentrate their efforts on doing everything possible to minimise damage to the Belfast Agreement, which he said must remain "the script for whatever we do after this".
He said: "In terms of what happens to the institutions next week, if there is suspension we want to make it very clear that the institutions of the agreement will have been injured but they have not been crippled."
While next week could bring "a lot of difficulties", Mr Durkan said the agenda must not become "an orgy of mutual recrimination".
Meanwhile Mr Blair reaffirmed his government's commitment to the agreement and to inclusivity in Northern Ireland. However he insisted that all aspects of the agreement had to be implemented and that "we are now at the point of decision".
Speaking to the BBC World Service, the Prime Minister said: "It is an obligation in particular for everyone to realise that there can be only one democratic path. That path cannot divide into a path of democracy and a path of violence, so we are at a point of decision now.
"I want this agreement to work but I need to know that the people I am sitting down in government with are committed to exclusively peaceful means. I think that is not an unreasonable proposition."
Mr Blair continued: "I believe that the republican leadership is committed to a peaceful future in Northern Ireland, but we have got to make sure now that all aspects of this agreement are properly implemented."
