The Government has acknowledged that the Hillsborough Declaration will not be the basis for resolving the decommissioning impasse and establishing a Northern executive.
It has also signalled its opposition to attempts at excluding parties from the new executive, emphasising the "inclusivity" of the peace process.
The moves came yesterday at the end of a day when support for the declaration began to evaporate, with the Alliance Party and the Women's Coalition distancing themselves from the April 1st document. Sinn Fein and the Progressive Unionist Party rejected the declaration on Tuesday.
Yesterday, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, challenged the two governments to state whether they had abandoned the Belfast Agreement in favour of the Hillsborough text.
Later, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ms Liz O'Donnell, stressing the need to build an inclusive set of institutions, including the executive, told reporters: "We have not reached a consensus on how we are going to do that; clearly it's not going to be on the basis of the declaration but it might be on a combination of other forms of the declaration.
"We are working on a range of scenarios, a range of proposals, taking into account the genuine concerns, conflicting concerns, of all the people who are stakeholders in this process."
When asked if the declaration was a "dead letter", she replied: "It's a working document."
Ms O'Donnell emphasised the need to include all parties in the peace process. "Right throughout this process, from the very beginning, there has been an imperative of maintaining inclusivity. We have never got anywhere at any stage in the process by excluding, demonising or blaming one particular party at any particular point in time."
The North's Minister for Political Development, Mr Paul Murphy, announced that Mr Tony Blair and the Taoiseach would be meeting in London this afternoon. He acknowledged that current difficulties would not be resolved quickly. "Obviously it's so important to get this right . . . it's been disappointing but we are absolutely resolved to ensure that this process is successful."
Senior sources said later the two prime ministers would be taking stock of the situation at their London meeting. They would be devoting considerable effort to resolving the impasse next week but there were no plans at present for the two to travel to Belfast.
Dr Mowlam and Ms O'Donnell will attend the London meeting.
The Irish delegation at yesterday's round-table meeting of the parties at Stormont was led by the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, who said the "working draft" produced at Hillsborough had sought to approach issues in a fresh way.
But he added: "We were, of course, fully aware that the approach suggested in the working draft would require the full and active co-operation of all those concerned.
"When we speak of an inclusive process, we mean it. At all stages, both during the negotiations leading to the agreement and since then, the Irish Government has emphasised that the only way to succeed is to bring all of the key players along with us.
"This is reflected in the agreement, under which all parties with the requisite support have an unquestioned right to sit in the executive. Equally, however, the executive can only function successfully with the participation and support of both communities. That's why we have to find a balance between competing and opposing fears and concerns, and find a way forward which all sides can live with and sell to their supporters."
Inter-party talks will continue at Stormont today.