THE multi party peace talks at Stormont last night paved the, way for a decisive vote next Monday to end the six week deadlock over procedures and facilitate substantive negotiations.
After a late night session, the parties agreed to meet again today to address outstanding details and formulate an agenda for the opening plenary meeting.
The DUP, however, continues to oppose the breakthrough formula and has put down nine procedural amendments.
The Minister for Justice, Mrs Owen, said: "We have not managed to actually adopt the compromise text which the chairman put up, but we have made progress."
The North's Minister for Political Development, Mr Michael Ancram, said: "It is steady progress and important progress.
A UUP spokesman, Mr Reg Empey, said his party had not yet seen all the amendments but they would examine them "in the light of the debate on the day".
The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, had earlier predicted that procedural rules would be agreed following a compromise formula put forward by the chairman, Senator George Mitchell. However he hinted that there could still be difficulties.
The former US senator yesterday presented the main parties with a "compromise" document containing 44 rules of procedures aimed at propelling the talks into their first substantive phase.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said his party could not accept a number of Senator Mitchell's rules.
There could not be unanimity on the document, he said. There were at least four key compromise rules which the DUP believed would maintain Senator Mitchell as the over arching chairman, and allow the Union to be placed on the agenda.
According to the DUP's interpretation of these rules they would not take precedence over the original ground rules command" document for the talks.
This document, said a senior DUP source, would be taken as the final "arbiter" in cases of unresolved procedural disputes - an interpretation which would be in line with proposals put forward by the SDLP this week.
Attending UUP source said that apart from one of the 44 compromise rules they were reasonably happy.
But notwithstanding the DUP's more trenchant opposition, the party has not ruled out participating in substantive talks, even if the rules are adopted at Monday's plenary session.
A leading source said he understood that if a majority of delegates representing the unionist tradition, and a majority representing the nationalist tradition agreed they would be adopted.
"We would have to decide whether the rules had been sufficiently modified by then to decide whether we could also accept those rules," he said.