The SDLP has accused Sinn Féin and the DUP of engaging in "blame" politics as talks continued at Stormont Castle late last night to try to break the deadlock over policing.
Sinn Féin and DUP politicians continued in intensive negotiations with senior British officials as the pre-Christmas opportunity for Gerry Adams to call a special ardchomhairle on policing began to run down.
"We are pushing to get this done, but it is impossible at this stage to say whether we will succeed," said a Sinn Féin spokeswoman last night.
The British and Irish governments were hoping that these talks, which Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and British prime minister Tony Blair are closely monitoring, would result in the Sinn Féin president this week calling the special ardchomhairle.
Such an ardchomhairle is in turn designed to trigger a special ardfheis on policing for early to mid-January. The concern in Dublin and London, and this is acknowledged by Sinn Féin and DUP politicians, is that if the ardchomhairle is not called today or tomorrow it could seriously undermine the prospects for a return to full devolution by March 26th, as envisaged in the St Andrews Agreement.
Northern Secretary Peter Hain returned from Britain to Northern Ireland yesterday to stay in close touch with the talks. At the time of writing last night there was still no sign of a breakthrough. Sinn Féin is seeking a model and a timeframe for the transfer of policing and justice powers to the Northern Executive.
The negotiations focused on efforts to find a compromise around a proposal made last week by the DUP at the Assembly subcommittee on policing. This involved electing a minister for justice on the basis of a 70 per cent cross-community vote in the Assembly.
This, in effect, means that neither Sinn Féin nor the DUP could take this post, as neither would be likely to command such support. Therefore it could be for the SDLP, Ulster Unionist Party or Alliance to take the ministry.
Under the DUP proposal, this would be a minister who would not have voting rights in the Executive. This, as well as the 70 per cent voting threshold and other elements of the proposal, were challenged by Sinn Féin.
The governments believe that a moderated version of the proposal has the potential to end the DUP/Sinn Féin policing standoff.
The policing subcommittee met at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, yesterday but according to committee sources little progress was made. This, perhaps, was unsurprising as the main focus of the talks was at Stormont Castle.
After the meeting, Alex Attwood, an SDLP representative on the policing committee, accused Sinn Féin and the DUP of playing "pass the parcel" on policing. "Their politics is more about blame than about solving problems," he added.