A crisis in the peace process has been averted by a last-minute compromise between the North's First Minister and Deputy First Minister on the timetable for setting up new government institutions.
Mr Seamus Mallon had sought to have last month's Ulster Unionist-SDLP agreement on new government departments and North-South bodies formally adopted by the Assembly next week to facilitate the transfer of powers from Westminster and the Dail.
However, this was opposed by the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, who was concerned that a shadow executive might then be established in which Sinn Fein would be seeking to participate without IRA decommissioning.
At one stage the danger loomed that the sitting of the Assembly scheduled for Monday would be cancelled because of failure to agree an agenda. This could have thrown the entire peace process into disarray.
Early yesterday, however, details of a compromise were revealed. Whereas the "approval" of a majority of members will be sought when a report on the UUP-SDLP agreement is presented to the Assembly next week, this will not be sufficient in procedural terms to trigger the establishment of the shadow executive.
However, there is now agreement that a formal determination on the report, fully endorsing it under the rules of the Assembly for cross-community voting, will be made on February 15th. This, according to most analysts, will allow the Northern Secretary to trigger the appointment of ministers and the establishment of the executive in shadow form.
This augurs well for the formal transfer of legislative powers on the target date of March 10th, set by Dr Mo Mowlam this week. This can be prevented only if there is a split in the Ulster Unionist group in the Assembly and a wing of the party defects to the camp opposing the Belfast Agreement.
There was angry reaction to the deal from anti-Agreement unionists. Mr Peter Robinson, of the Democratic Unionist Party, said Mr Trimble was attempting to "trick and con" some of his UUP colleagues.
He said if Assembly members approved the Trimble-Mallon report next week, "they will be signing a post-dated cheque which effectively will be cashed when it comes to the 15th of February".
The UK Unionist Party leader, Mr Robert McCartney, distributed a five-page analysis of the current situation to UUP members. He said there was "an enormous amount of unease" in UUP ranks over the consequences of next week's vote.
Some regret over the altered timetable was expressed by the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams. He said: "It's clear that the UUP have bought a little extra time. That's disappointing."
Mr Adams had what he described as a "good meeting" with Mr Mallon on the report yesterday. However, he said the UUP leadership was "delaying the inevitable" and he dismissed unionist threats to exclude Sinn Fein from government as "waffle".
A senior UUP spokesman, Mr Michael McGimpsey, said delaying the key vote until February 15th allowed time for further work on the restructuring of departments and arrangements for the Civic Forum and the British-Irish Council.
He rejected the view that Sinn Fein would be automatically entitled to membership of a shadow executive. "There are obligations within the [Belfast] Agreement and those will be required to be met by everybody who wants to go into the executive."
Mr Mallon said that, although he would have preferred to see the report being fully adopted next week, "the reality was that a motion to that effect was not going to get cross-community support".
The Alliance leader, Mr Sean Neeson, said although his party was disappointed the matter would not be resolved next week, "we are prepared to accept the compromise".