The British and Irish governments and the Northern political parties will today attempt to push forward the North-South element of the Belfast Agreement, ahead of Saturday's deadline for agreeing areas for cross-Border co-operation.
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, are to meet in Dublin to discuss how to inject fresh momentum into the political process, which has been deadlocked by the decommissioning issue, while in Belfast Mr David Trimble and Mr Seamus Mallon will table proposals for North-South co-operation.
As the disarmament question continues to prevent movement on the formation of an executive, the two governments and the North's First Minister and Deputy First Minister are anxious to ensure that there is progress in other areas of the agreement.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said that today's Stormont talks should remain in permanent session until the issue of the establishment of the institutions outlined in the agreement was resolved.
At the multi-party talks today Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon will present a consultation paper aimed at identifying which North-South implementation bodies should be established. They will also seek agreement on the number of executive departments.
Dr Mowlam and Mr Andrews hope that through today's Stormont talks they will be able to argue that, while the North-South ministerial council will not be formally established by the October 31st deadline, a framework for the council will have been created.
The Belfast Agreement charges the Assembly and the Irish Government with "identifying and agreeing by October 31st areas where co-operation and implementation for mutual benefit will take place". The areas mentioned in the agreement for co-operation include all-Ireland tourism promotion, transport, agriculture, environment and education.
This morning Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon will present a consultation paper on how an Assembly executive might operate. A key area for discussion will be the number of executive departments. This afternoon they will chair intensive talks on the North-South element of the agreement with most of the other parties.
Until now the UUP has argued that at most there should be only seven departments, while most of the other parties favour 10. This is particularly important to the SDLP and Sinn Fein, as 10 departments would allow them to hold three and two ministries respectively. It would also mean the DUP having two seats on the executive.
A source close to Mr Trimble said: "We will be looking for all the parties to draw closer together on agreeing the North-South issues. The consultation papers are about getting the administrative structures and details into proper focus."
However, the source stressed that the UUP was holding to its position that there would be no executive without some prior IRA decommissioning.
