The British and Irish governments will soon publish detailed proposals for progress in Northern Ireland along the lines suggested at the weekend by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, the Northern Secretary has said.
Mr Ahern said London and Dublin were considering restoring the Stormont Assembly for a few months without a power-sharing executive. Mr Peter Hain said yesterday that Mr Ahern's remarks reflected "current thinking".
Speaking while on a visit to the lower Shankill area of west Belfast, he said that many details of the governments' plan had still to be worked out. He also warned local politicians that they faced some difficult decisions in the near future.
"The Taoiseach set out our current thinking, we are working on a plan," he said. "But what is clear is that we cannot go on as we are. We've got to get to a position where we bridge the gap between nationalists and republicans who won't go into a shadow assembly and unionists who will only go into a shadow assembly.
"I think we can do that, and when the prime minister and the Taoiseach are ready to announce the plan, which they will be within the next month, then we can move forward.
"But it will be a hard decision for Northern Ireland politicians, which they cannot duck. They need to make a decision for the future and that choice will be presented to them."
Mr Hain warned against making any "assumptions" on the details of the plan at this stage.
But he added: "This decision will have to be made this year. If the politicians can't agree and can't accept the plan we put forward, then we will have to move on an entirely different basis. But I would regret that and hope they go along with it."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern has suggested that such an "entirely different basis" could mean closer co-operation between the two governments in the administration of Northern Ireland, something to which the DUP is vehemently opposed.
Mr Hain said that he wanted a local assembly and power-sharing as envisaged in the Belfast Agreement.
"But I can't force the parties to agree, and if they choose not to agree with each other, then we will have to get on with the job of governing Northern Ireland in the way that we are."
He repeated warnings issued earlier this year that he was prepared to close the Stormont institutions in the event of prolonged stalemate.
"We cannot continue to pay Assembly members for jobs they refuse to do, keeping an institution up and running month after month after month, going on for years - people are not willing to accept this any longer and we need to get some closure on that."
Asked about a possible boycott of the policing board by Ulster Unionists in response to his decision to appoint greater numbers of independents rather than politicians to the board, the Northern Secretary said that he expected all those who had been nominated to take their seats.
Mr Hain is to announce later today the conclusions of the review of public administration in Northern Ireland. Significant cuts in the scale of public administration are expected.