The British government has signalled support for efforts to move the Northern Ireland talks away from the narrow issue of decommissioning, in an indication that the two governments have developed a common strategy to try to end the deadlock.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, warned that the entrenched positions of unionists and republicans had led to "no guns and no government", and now threatened to bring political instability and possibly violence.
His call for an end to the "devolution-decommissioning stalemate" was echoed yesterday by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, who warned that if the talks stayed within the "narrow context" in which they were currently stuck, "then the prospects of agreement are very slim".
Nationalist sources last night suggested Mr Mandelson's comments were directed particularly at the Ulster Unionist Party, and that they echoed the Dublin view that a move away from the "no guns, no government" position must be made by the UUP.
However, speaking at an Irish Management Institute dinner in Dublin last night, Mr Mandelson was careful to equate the unionist and republican positions as two sides of a "Mexican stand-off" that must be ended.
"Unionists say there must be certainty about decommissioning before they will participate in the institutions. Republicans say that certainty about decommissioning can only be achieved when the political institutions have been functioning for some time," he said.
These positions were mutually exclusive. The end result, as we had seen to our cost, was not guns and government, but no guns and no government.
In a BBC interview yesterday afternoon, Mr Cowen suggested decommissioning could take place in a context where everyday life has returned to normal, and the police force and criminal justice system have been reformed.
The full text of Mr Mandeldon's address is available on the Irish Times Website at www.ireland.com/newspaper/special/