Fears that the British government may be forced to call elections or suspend the Assembly and Executive were exacerbated last night. This was because of an apparent brinkmanship battle between Sinn Fein, the UUP and the SDLP over who should first declare its hand on the British-Irish blueprint.
The manoeuvrings of the three main pro-Belfast Agreement parties are casting doubt over whether the British and Irish governments will have a firm verdict on their joint package by their deadline of Monday night. And without agreement by August 12th - the deadline for re-election of the first and deputy first ministers - the British government must suspend the institutions or call fresh Assembly elections.
Sinn Fein's ruling ard chomhairle met in Castlebellingham, Co Louth, yesterday, while at Hillsborough the SDLP and Ulster Unionist Party met the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, for clarification of the British-Irish paper.
But none of the parties would definitively state whether it would accept the proposals, causing concern in London and Dublin that this brinkmanship could jeopardise prospects of general pro-agreement acceptance of the document.
The British and Irish governments are still hoping that an IRA move on arms in the coming days could break this deadlock. However, Sinn Fein's interim response to the package has cast doubts on the chances of an IRA gesture being speedily forthcoming.
Sinn Fein slightly modified its position on the proposals from the negative assessment of the package by the party's policing spokesman, Mr Gerry Kelly, on Thursday night. The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, had some positive but qualified comments to make about the document in Castlebellingham yesterday.
"The governments explicitly recognise that the Good Friday agreement has not been implemented thus far. This is a good development. We welcome that," he said. "The proposals provide a basis for further progress if the governments have the will to proceed."
However, he indicated that Sinn Fein's official response would not be disclosed until "the implementation plan on policing plus the legislative amendments to the Police Act and the implementation plan to deliver a fair and impartial system of justice" were published.
One London source expressed suspicion that this was a tactic to try to force the UUP to reject the document before it was known what the IRA was prepared to do on arms.
Dr Reid yesterday showed the UUP, the SDLP and Alliance copies of the police implementation plan, but did not release the document because, according to sources, publication of its contents ahead of any counter-balancing move on IRA arms could wreck any chances of unionists signing up to the package.
A senior Sinn Fein delegation will see the plan when they meet Dr Reid at Hillsborough today. If Mr Adams and his colleagues hold to their demand for publication of the implementation plans, and particularly the legislation, it could delay their response by over a week, or perhaps much longer.
The Ulster Unionist Party officer board will meet on Monday night to assess the package. Party sources said it could take until Tuesday, and possibly longer, before it would respond. "It's simple really: if this is to have any chance, we have to know what the IRA will do on decommissioning," said one senior party member.
