Efforts to break the deadlock over decommissioning will resume at Stormont today with a series of meetings, including a round-table session involving all the parties supporting the Belfast Agreement.
There was a growing sense of crisis yesterday as both Sinn Fein and the Progressive Unionist Party issued statements formally rejecting the Hillsborough Declaration - the working paper on decommissioning issued by the Taoiseach and the British prime minister two weeks ago.
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said he had read in some newspapers that "Dublin government sources" were saying his party had not rejected the Hillsborough document. "So that there is no uncertainty or confusion about this, and given this propensity to negotiate through the media, let me make it very clear that Sinn Fein formally rejects the Hillsborough Declaration," Mr McLaughlin said.
Sinn Fein's view was that the declaration moved away from the Belfast Agreement by making the transfer of power and establishment of institutions conditional on the delivery of IRA weapons.
The Progressive Unionist Party, political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force, objected to the section of the declaration proposing a collective act of reconciliation in which paramilitary weapons would be put "beyond use" in tandem with reductions in the security presence in Northern Ireland.
Mr David Ervine of the PUP said his party had worked consistently "to ensure that illegal weapons were not equated with legally held weapons". The PUP remained committed to the Belfast Agreement, he said.
Sir Reg Empey of the Ulster Unionist Party said clarification of "what is meant by this day of reconciliation" was required. "We had had no advance notice of it before it was published."
A spokesman for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Dr Mo Mowlam, denied that she took the view that a Northern executive acceptable to both unionists and nationalists would not be formed under the existing terms of the agreement. This was a misinterpretation of a statement she had issued, Dr Mowlam said, and her position was that an executive would not be formed "if people are only prepared to fight their own corner".
The Taoiseach is expected to discuss the latest turn of events with Mr Blair in Brussels today.
??????ein was a setback to hopes that the document could be reworked in a manner acceptable to both republicans and unionists.
Hopes of a Belfast visit by the two leaders tomorrow have been dashed. The talks may have to continue into next week, but last night there seemed to be little prospect of resolving the current difficulties in the short term. However, negotiations are said to be continuing in the background over the contents of the forthcoming British government paper on demilitarisation and normalisation, with strong pressure from Dublin for a result that will meet the demands of nationalists.
Senior sources said the Kosovo crisis was preventing Mr Blair from giving developments at Stormont his full attention. Despite the difficulties in the peace process, there was no sense of a major emergency effort being mounted to overcome the problems.