The Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein appear to be under pressure this morning as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, await their responses to proposals designed to break the deadlock in the peace process.
After the adjournment of more than 10 hours of talks at Downing Street last night, some sources suggested that a further round of consultations today would produce "key indications" of the success or failure of a new strategy to resolve the decommissioning issue and pave the way for the early creation of the power-sharing executive.
Politicians on all sides remained tight-lipped about the detail of the daylong discussions, which took place in bilateral and round-table format. However, one idea being canvassed was that agreement by the parties could see a transitional Northern Ireland government in place by next month, in return for a republican commitment to a disarmament process, with in-built penalties and sanctions if decommissioning is not achieved by May, 2000.
However, uncertainty persisted, with key questions - primarily about the timing of the devolution of power to the Assembly and the start date for any decommissioning - remaining unanswered.
Insistence by the British and Irish governments that "serious business" had been done and "significant progress made" seemed somewhat at odds with the demeanour and comments of Mr David Trimble and Mr Gerry Adams.
The Ulster Unionist leader was the first to emerge from Downing Street, confirming that "a number of ideas" were in play, and that the parties had agreed to be "in touch over the next few days", while maintaining that he could "not be more precise" as to if or when they would reconvene.
In an apparent signal that he had held his party's line on decommissioning, Mr Trimble said that his desire was to secure "the implementation of the agreement in its entirety and its integrity".
After the Taoiseach, standing alongside Mr John Hume, the SDLP leader, pronounced on a "serious and intensive dialogue" with "a lot of progress made", Mr Adams told reporters that it had been "a long day . . . and a very difficult day".
The Sinn Fein president said that they had come to London to "help rescue the process" and that "lots of difficulties" remained to be resolved. The challenge, he repeated, was to make progress "on all the aspects of the agreement which have been in default for some time". He emphasised that the primary responsibility for achieving that rested with Mr Blair, as the prime minister "with jurisdiction in our part of Ireland".
Mr Adams insisted that the European elections should not be an obstacle to progress. He did not know if or when the talks would be reconvened and declined to answer questions on whether Mr Trimble had shifted his position.
Yesterday's marathon session also saw a number of discussions about the ongoing crisis over Drumcree. But contrary to earlier speculation that this might be integral to the search for an overall agreement, sources insisted that the issue was "peripheral" to the main business under discussion.