The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has said that within the terms of the Belfast Agreement he is prepared "to try to find some accommodation" that will end the deadlock over decommissioning.
He said that Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body offered the "best route" out of the disarmament logjam.
Ahead of an expected two weeks of intensive formal and behind-the-scenes negotiations to find a way over the weapons hurdle Mr Adams said Sinn Fein was willing to be flexible to make the Belfast Agreement work.
"If Mr Trimble is serious about trying to implement the agreement I am prepared to stretch this leadership, [and] our constituency, provided Mr Trimble is prepared to stretch with me," he said yesterday.
But Mr Adams insisted that Sinn Fein was not in a position to deliver on the "wish list" of IRA weapons that Mr Trimble was demanding - weapons, detonators, timers, explosives - before he could accept Sinn Fein taking two ministerial posts in the executive.
"It is not within the gift of this Sinn Fein leadership to deliver the IRA, or to deliver IRA decommissioning, in the terms demanded by Mr Trimble," he said.
Mr Adams did not specify how an accommodation could be found which could be reconciled with the apparent contradiction of Sinn Fein stating it could not deliver on IRA decommissioning - albeit he did qualify his remarks with the addendum "in the terms demanded by Mr Trimble".
He suggested that Gen de Chastelain's decommissioning body would be crucial to the problem being resolved.
"So, in that route or along that avenue we will find, if there is a willingness, the resolution of this issue within the spirit and letter of the agreement, and within the terms of that section dealing with decommissioning," he told The Irish Times.
"If we could move things forward, we would do so, but it is not within our gift to do so in the terms, and in the absolutist way, demanded by Mr Trimble," he added.
The Sinn Fein president said Mr Trimble should take note of a clause in the Belfast Agreement whereby parties in breach of the Mitchell principles on democracy and non-violence could be excluded from the political system.
"If Mr Trimble is really looking for a guarantee he has it in the terms of the agreement," he said.
Mr Adams demanded an independent inquiry into the murder of Lurgan solicitor Ms Rosemary Nelson. "The RUC should have no part in this inquiry, and no executive role. What is required is a fully independent international inquiry. The family have made that clear," he said.
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, said she was hopeful that the decommissioning deadlock could be broken. She said "both sides were right" - the UUP and Sinn Fein - in their interpretations of the agreement.
She told BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs that both sides wanted to make progress and reach an agreement. "Decommissioning is not a precondition, which is where Sinn Fein is right, but it is an obligation," Dr Mowlam said.
Meanwhile, the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said the IRA was incapable of decommissioning "because the handover of weapons removes the threat which causes governments to tremble and gives them an edge over their political opponents".
"The failure by David Trimble to require decommissioning as part of the agreement is his Achilles heel. Decommissioning will be dangled in front of unionists as a reward for endless concessions. But no matter how long it is dangled it will never be delivered," Mr Robinson said at the weekend.
He described the peace process as one-sided and stacked against the unionist community. "The craven pursuit of peace at any price has left the unionist people as prey to an insatiable Provo appetite and a gutless and spineless government," he added.
