Intensive negotiations will continue throughout today in an effort to prevent tomorrow's first meeting of the transitional Stormont Assembly ending in failure.
British prime minister Tony Blair is expected to be involved in talks with the DUP about the terms in which the party might indicate its intention to nominate a first minister come the March 26th deadline for the appointment of a new powersharing executive.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain has issued his starkest warning yet that failure to do so at tomorrow's Assembly sitting could bring the current process aimed at restoring devolution to a halt.
While stopping short of a threat to cancel Assembly elections scheduled for March 7th, Mr Hain told MPs at Westminster that failure by any party, including the DUP, to indicate their intention would prompt people to ask "what is the point of going ahead?"
Speaking during Northern Ireland Questions, Mr Hain said the indication of future intent required - as distinct from the formal nomination of first and deputy first ministers designate originally proposed - was "a key and indispensable part" of the St Andrews Agreement, and that failure to achieve it would leave many people with no confidence in other aspects of the process.
Mr Hain also clashed with DUP MP Nigel Dodds over his repeated assertion that the devolution of policing and justice powers to the Assembly was unlikely to occur in his lifetime. Mr Hain said such "inflammatory statements" were "hardly an encouragement" to Sinn Féin to meet its obligation to resolve its attitude on the policing issue quickly.
However, Mr Dodds countered that in seeking "designation, nomination or indication" Mr Hain was "in effect asking people [ the DUP] to jump first" while Sinn Féin had "retreated" to its pre-St Andrews position on policing.
Mr Hain insisted it was "not a question of jumping first", while demanding: "If there is not a willingness to express even an intention to nominate on Friday for March 26th, what is the point of proceeding?"
Mr Hain also questioned Mr Dodds's "never in my lifetime" statements when parliament had expressly legislated for the eventual devolution of policing and justice powers.
Yesterday's clash followed exchanges during the passage of the Northern Ireland (St Andrews Agreement) Bill in the Commons on Tuesday night when Mr Dodds reminded Mr Hain that his colleagues Peter Robinson and the Rev William McCrea had similarly stated the DUP's position on this issue in the Commons last May.
The later stages of Tuesday night's debate also saw a number of other hardline DUP interventions seeming to confirm serious tensions within the party's parliamentary team.
Mr McCrea, Sammy Wilson and Gregory Campbell spoke of the need for "a credible period of time" in which to test any Sinn Féin commitment to support policing.
At the same time Upper Bann MP David Simpson said: "I have no faith that Sinn Féin-IRA will follow the democratic line on policing and the rule of law."
DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson told the House that, "on the basis of what government said", they had left St Andrews in the expectation of Sinn Féin movement to a special ardfheis to resolve the policing issue - while asserting that the St Andrews Agreement did not make this conditional upon a timetable for the devolution of policing and justice powers.