Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams has declared himself "wedded" to the peace process as Secretary of State Dr John Reid prepares to suspend the Northern Ireland Executive by Monday.
Clearly conscious of the "blame game" still to be played-out in the aftermath of suspension, Mr Adams struck a positive note outside Number 10 yesterday after a Downing Street summit with the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair.
In the aftermath of the IRA's alleged espionage at the heart of the Northern Ireland Office, Mr Adams said the meeting - likened in advance to "a cross between High Noon and Gunfight at the OK Corral" - had been "cordial, honest and frank". Dr Reid later echoed Mr Adams' assessment of the encounter, describing it also as "honest, frank" and "in many ways constructive". Mr Adams said "Sinn Féin were here as partners" in the peace process.
In a clear signal of his determination that the Belfast Agreement represents the only way forward, Mr Blair again accepted the sincerity of the republican leadership while making clear that suspension would be the result of the failure of the republican movement to resolve the ambiguities of a "dual strategy" combining politics and continuing paramilitary activity.
Significantly, certainly for Number 10, Mr Adams did not engage in a lengthy rebuttal of the charges levelled at his party in the aftermath of last Friday's police raid on Sinn Féin's Stormont office.
Mr Adams insisted that the current crisis could be dated to the decision of the Ulster Unionist Council to withdraw from the institutions of government by January 18th next year. He had told Mr Blair there was no basis for anyone to seek Sinn Féin's exclusion from ministerial office, and warned against suspension in response to unionist demands. "Nationalists and republicans do not see the suspension at the whim of unionism as the least worst option," he said.
To suspend again would be a mistake: "It would characterise the institutions as something which are ad-hoc . . . something to be given and to be taken away." At the same time Mr Adams appeared to bow to the inevitable, stressing the dangers of "opening up a long vacuum which will be filled by those who want to bring this down".
Mr Blair has plainly prevailed in the argument over immediate Assembly elections as an alternative to suspension. London's fear is that elections boosting Sinn Féin and the DUP could simply consolidate the present stalemate, a view shared privately by the Ulster Unionists and the SDLP.
However after Wednesday night's meeting between Mr Blair and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, Dublin appears to have converged with the SDLP around a firm expectation that the Assembly elections should proceed by their scheduled date, May 1st next year, at the latest.
While Dublin apparently still harbours doubts and suspicions about the timing of the police action against Sinn Féin, it is understood the Taoiseach accepts that national security has been breached and that republicans have a case to answer. Mr Ahern acknowledged on Wednesday night that "the trust" essential to maintaining the power-sharing administration did not exist in present circumstances, and that it therefore fell to the two governments to "manage" the situation forward.
Mr Adams' demeanour yesterday suggested that he, too, was in management mode, anticipating a cooling-off period to be followed by further intensive negotiations after an eventual Assembly election.
Downing Street sources refused to comment on the exchanges between Mr Adams and Mr Blair, and there was no indication that Mr Blair had bluntly asked for the IRA's disbandment. But the official line on this was that the PM was convinced of the need "to get the (republican) transition track and the political track back in line".
However outside Number 10 and in media interviews yesterday Mr Adams again seemed to allow that disbandment was one of the end purposes of the process.