REMARKS by two Sinn Fein leaders at the weekend held out the firm prospect of a new IRA ceasefire, if Sinn Fein were to be included in settlement talks and the two governments were to jointly steer the process into real and meaningful negotiations.
However, the Sinn Fein formula begs the crucial question of how unionists could be persuaded to stay in the process in such circumstances.
Mr Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein ardchomhairle member and senior negotiator, said in an RTE interview yesterday that real negotiations would require "a peaceful environment", and he agreed there could not be a peaceful environment while there was no IRA ceasefire.
Meanwhile, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, urged the British and Irish governments to take a new initiative for peace, and he hinted that it is not too late to reconstruct the conditions for another IRA ceasefire. Speaking on Saturday - the day which marked two years since the IRA ceasefire of August, 1994 - he said it was a grave indictment of British government policy and unionist intransigence that there had "still not been a single word of real negotiation".
Mr Adams said: "The onus is now on the British and Irish governments to take a new initiative for peace - to lead all of the parties away from the failures of the past towards a new and brighter future." He said the talks process at Stormont lacked any credibility, and that "most observers and the public accept that it is incapable of producing a peace settlement".
The two governments needed to build an inclusive process of negotiations based on equality, with no preconditions and with all relevant issues on the agenda. There could be no vetoes, and a time frame was needed to inject the necessary dynamic for real progress.