The British government has not entirely ruled out holding fresh Assembly elections in Northern Ireland in the event of failure to break the decommissioning deadlock in the next few weeks.
This became clear last night after the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, demanded a new poll and that Sinn Fein "pays the price" for any IRA refusal to put weapons permanently beyond use.
During exchanges following his Commons statement yesterday, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr John Reid, again showed himself reluctant to contemplate a second suspension of the Stormont Assembly and other institutions of the Belfast Agreement. British government sources later confirmed that while suspension remained an option, Dr Reid "would need a lot of persuasion" to take it.
Dr Reid insisted no one should write off next week's negotiations which the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, and the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, would lead. At the same time, he took a sideswipe at Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness over his assertion that all parties were collectively responsible for resolving decommissioning and other issues threatening the agreement.
The basis for progress in Northern Ireland, he said, lay in its full implementation, the commitment of all parties to exclusively democratic means and the rejection of force or the threat of force. "It also means that as the institutional, social and legal changes set out in the agreement are implemented, they must be accompanied by the putting of illegal weapons completely beyond use. "In this, of course we all have collective responsibility, but some parties have a particular position of influence with the paramilitaries and, under the agreement, are obliged to use it to achieve decommissioning."
British government sources said later that "collective responsibility" could not be used as a cover-all on decommissioning since the "influence" of the parties over different aspects of the process varied.
Dr Reid's statement to MPs allowed for fresh Assembly elections or for suspension should the negotiations not result in a successful election for the posts of First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Meanwhile, a huge security operation is due to begin in Portadown, Co Armagh, to enforce the Parade Commission's decision to ban the annual Drumcree march. Unionists have reacted angrily to the decision, announced last night. It is the fourth consecutive year that the parade has been banned. Some 1,600 extra troops have already arrived in the North and will drafted into Drumcree over coming days. The executive officer of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Mr George Patton, said it the decision was part of "a policy of cultural genocide". Unionists have also reacted angrily to the report from the international arms commission. The commission said the IRA had still not spelt out how it planned to put weapons beyond use. However, it accepted the IRA's commitment to do so in the event of movement on policing and demilitarisation. Mr Ahern said it was important to emphasise the positive. When all the progress was taken together, "there is an inevitability of getting to the end of this and, of course, we have to keep working to achieve that".
A Downing Street spokesman said the British government was encouraged by the number of meetings between the IRA and the commission but disappointed there had been no progress on decommissioning.