Sinn Fein is under pressure from all sides to agree to a deal without winning all of its demands on police reform as the protracted Northern talks enter their final phase.
There is growing speculation that a final session of talks will be convened in Belfast next week in a last-ditch attempt to reach agreement. Sources in both governments agreed yesterday that such a meeting could end up discussing how to give a "soft landing" to the stalled negotiations after a protracted six-week series of bilateral meetings which has failed to resolve the impasse.
However, efforts to reach agreement are continuing, with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, due to review yesterday's round of talks in Dublin by telephone today. All parties agree there is just a week left to agree or admit defeat in advance of the British general election campaign.
Sinn Fein continued to press yesterday for amendments to police legislation to increase the powers of the new Policing Board, Police Ombudsman and Oversight Commissioner, as well as concessions on a number of other issues.
While there is some optimism that agreement can be reached on the issues of paramilitary weapons and scaling down the British security presence in the North, deadlock remains on police reform.
In a pessimistic assessment yesterday, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said he believed agreement on policing was possible in the future but not "at this time". He did not rule out agreement over the coming days but said there could be a break in the current talks without agreement.
There were indications yesterday that the party was coming under pressure to accept less than what it is seeking, with Government sources pointing to the Taoiseach's statement in the Dail on Tuesday that "there has been more than 90 per cent progress" towards a deal.
Mr Ahern suggested he and church leaders could seek to persuade the parties to accept an imperfect deal. "I accept that I have a role, as do the churches and others, in trying to persuade the parties if there is a deal which, although not perfect, can enable progress," he said.
Some senior British government figures suggested this week that the Government should publicly encourage nationalists to accept what they may see as an "imperfect" deal, and then enthusiastically back the SDLP should it break ranks with Sinn Fein on the issue.
Mr Trimble echoed this argument yesterday, calling on the SDLP to appoint people to the new policing boards, and said: "We hope very much that the Irish Government in that situation would be supportive of the SDLP if they were to move on this issue in advance of republicans, which I think is very much in the interests of the SDLP."
The SDLP continues to have concerns of its own on policing, such as whether investigations can take place into controversial events of the past such as the killings of Rosemary Nelson, Pat Finucane and Robert Hamill. There is also concern within Government circles and the SDLP to ensure the SDLP is not outflanked by Sinn Fein during the general election campaign through accepting an imperfect deal.
Apparently warning against a breaking of nationalist ranks on the issue, Mr Adams yesterday twice called on the "pro-agreement parties" to stick together under the leadership of the Government. They should push both Mr Trimble and the British government to "live up to their responsibilities".
His criticism of the UUP indicated his call to stick together was aimed at the Government and the two Northern nationalist parties.
He denied he was concerned that the Government and the SDLP might not stick together with his party and maintained they all held the same position.