The Stormont talks will "have to move from generalities into specifics" when they resume on Monday, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, has insisted.
Speaking in Dublin yesterday on the eve of his talks with the Progressive Unionist Party leader, Mr David Ervine, the Minister said there was no more time for "shadow-boxing". The hard work of negotiating must start.
The Government intended to play a leading part "in bringing a new impetus and focus to the talks", he added.
"It is clear that there is a great deal of fear about the near future and much anxiety and nervousness about the peace process itself," the Minister said. Saying he understood entirely why this was so, Mr Andrews added that now was not the time to surrender to pessimism. The peace process had overcome steeper obstacles.
"It would be simply unthinkable for us as democratic politicians to surrender the initiative to a handful of paramilitaries. With sufficient will and determination, we can show that democratic politics can and does work," he said.
Commending the loyalist leaders' "vision and perseverance" prior to today's meeting with Mr Ervine, Mr Andrews said he was heartened that these parties remained committed to the peace process. Over the autumn, the talks did record "some modest gains" but he accepted that this level of achievement was not good enough.
"We're now entering a decisive phase, and the preliminary skirmishes have to end. The two governments have tried hard to offer assurances to all of the parties on the basic matters of principle, and to show that nobody's fundamental interests or aspirations will be betrayed in any imaginable overall agreement," he said.
However, it was only in hammering out the details of a settlement - when people could discuss together how structures and institutions would work - that it would become clear how a settlement could be in everyone's interests "and to nobody's detriment".
Paraphrasing Mr Ervine, he said: "We need to replace the politics of want with the politics of need. We will never have a better opportunity than we now do to achieve lasting peace and a durable political agreement. With sufficient courage and vision, we are on the threshold of a historic settlement on this island. We must not fail."
Meanwhile, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said today's meeting between Mr Andrews and Mr Ervine was tangible recognition that the peace process had two sides and that two ceasefires were important.
"It should also cause constitutional nationalists to rethink some assumptions. Critics from within the nationalist community are all too ready to describe anyone from within their community who seeks to explain a unionist point of view as `ashamed of Irishness' or `lacking in backbone'."
"This ingrained and reactionary mentality is directly responsible for the continuing strife on the island over the past 200 years and the persistence of this mentality will guarantee the ultimate failure of the peace process," he said.
In their rhetoric, both nationalism and unionism purported to be secular and inclusive ideologies, he added. However, in practice, both had long ago allowed themselves to be taken over by people who saw the world and Ireland "in sectional terms".
"For the peace process to succeed, the nature of both unionism and nationalism will have to change," Mr Bruton said.
If nationalism were to live up to the principles of Wolfe Tone and unionism to act in accordance with the principles of civil and religious liberty for all, the gap between the two would be "much narrower than it is at present".