The North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, has called on the two governments to take charge of the latest crisis to ensure nothing happens to allow anti-agreement unionists to claim victory.
As the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, prepare to meet in Downing Street this evening, Mr Durkan said nothing should be done over the next few days that could not be undone. "And nothing should be done to send anti-agreement unionists a signal that the agreement itself is faltering."
Speaking after a meeting with the Taoiseach in Dublin yesterday, Mr Durkan said it was an oversimplification to say there was a choice between an early Assembly election and the suspension of the political institutions.
"What we want to see is the two governments heading this process, working very closely together and keeping things very tight between themselves," he said.
"Whatever happens in the coming days we don't want the two governments appearing to take different approaches. That would mean anti-agreement unionists will feel they have helped destabilise the institutions and they have helped to separate the two governments." He said the anti-agreement unionists preferred the option of an early election - earlier than the scheduled one in May 2003.
"They want the collapse of the Assembly and they want immediate elections because they believe that that will declare the agreement over. They will campaign on the basis of coming up with something completely different. I think we still have to work very hard to avoid any suspension and any interruption."
He first said he did not believe a suspension was inevitable: "The Taoiseach, like myself, shares an aversion to suspension. We don't want anything to mar the performance and implementation of the agreement in any way. But we can also recognise the political factors that are at play and the way the ground is shifting." Asked again about whether suspension was inevitable, he said: "It seems we are looking at resignations being tendered from the DUP, probably being tendered from the UUP, possibly exclusion motions being tabled in the Assembly. Whatever the sequence . . . we are heading either to dissolution or suspension of the Assembly. That's the reality. We are going to see some permutation of those options."
He said that Sinn Féin and the republican movement had questions to answer. "There are issues raised by what there is in the media. I don't know how true any of what is in the media is, but the fact is it is believable in the minds of too many people, and it is believable because the denials we have heard from the leaders of the republican movement in the past haven't stood up.