The Irish and British governments are to consider stepping up the frequency of meetings to review implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
Speaking at Hillsborough, Co Down, yesterday, the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, met leaders of the pro-agreement parties to review the operation of the accord. Today is the fourth Good Friday since the deal was signed.
The meeting was a stocktaking exercise designed to draw in all pro-agreement sides, especially the smaller parties, and to refocus efforts on the larger picture.
Dr Reid spoke of "looking beyond the horizon" of the agreement and of "building a society free from the burden of history and liberated from the curse of sectarianism."
Mr Cowen said the meeting highlighted the pro-agreement parties' determination to make the process work and of achieving "a win-win situation" for everybody. He said the meeting was "not for the optics, it was a meeting of substance".
However the Ulster Unionist leader warned that a "parallel process" outside the terms of the agreement threatened its survival. Mr David Trimble said the Irish Government was proposing to operate side-deals relating to fugitives on the run, or OTRs, and to offer Northern Ireland representatives facilities in the Dáil.
"We don't need things that are not in the agreement, and that specifically refers firstly to the question of a form of amnesty for on-the-run terrorists," he said afterwards. "That's not in the agreement. There is no amnesty. There is no anomaly and there is no need therefore to extend outside the agreement."
With a view to growing unionist doubts about the accord over the last four years, Mr Cowen stressed the need "to sell to the public out there that what's going on in terms of implementing this agreement is in everybody's interests".
He echoed Dr Reid's remarks about the extent of progress made since 1998, emphasised the need to advocate the benefits of the accord and called for intense efforts to implement the deal in advance of next year's Assembly elections.
Dr Reid and Mr Cowen insisted that those opposed to the accord had nothing to offer the people of Northern Ireland. The latter added that outstanding difficulties would be addressed "in creative and imaginative ways . . . and a spirit of concord".
Dr Reid denied a deal had been done regarding OTRs. In contradiction to Mr Trimble's comment, he said the issue was "an anomaly which arises out of the Good Friday agreement". He further denied that it was linked to a second anticipated act of IRA decommissioning.
Dr Reid said much remained to be done in the wider human rights, justice and policing areas, adding it would "take years to get where we want to on policing".
He said: "In the Assembly and the Executive it may take some time, but we wish to pass over more powers and similarly we want to see decommissioning pass from an event into a process."
Speaking afterwards, the Sinn Féin president also rejected Mr Trimble's claim that the question of OTRs was a side-issue. Mr Adams said: "The two governments have acknowledged that there is an anomaly which is the issue of a small handful of people against whom warrants have been issued. So it isn't a side-issue." He stressed that full implementation of the agreement was the only road to progress.
The Deputy First Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, denied that the Irish Government was working to underline the accord by offering facilities to Northern MPs. The SDLP leader commended the Taoiseach's "very strong regard for the agreement".