MR John Major has pledged that the Docklands bombing does not spell the end of the Northern Ireland peace process. He has also launched a fresh effort to win Dublin backing for elections as a direct route to all party negotiations. At the same time, the British Prime Minister has declared himself open minded about any other proposals designed to achieve that goal.
Specifically, Mr Major told Mr John Hume he would "take account" of the SDLP leader's proposal for a referendum inviting the people to speak on the use of violence and the need for round table talks "to begin the process of dialogue to create lasting stability."
Signalling some improvement in the Anglo Irish atmosphere, the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, welcomed Mr Major's determination to keep the process alive, his willingness to secure all party negotiations, and his "openness to ideas from the Irish Government on alternative or complementary ways forward." The Tanaiste said that "imposed elections would not work, but agreed elections on the right terms might."
Reporting to MPs on the collapse of the IRA ceasefire, Mr Major said "a huge question mark" hung over Sinn Fe in's future involvement in the process. He was not, he said, "in the business of slamming doors." But he insisted "the British and Irish peoples need to know where Sinn Fe in stands."
Mr Major said his proposal for an elective process had been "consistently misrepresented by Sinn Fe in and misunderstood more widely." Speaking in a crowded and sombre Commons, chamber, he repeatedly told MPs that its purpose was "to lead directly and speedily to negotiations between all parties committed to peaceful and democratic methods, aimed at reaching a comprehensive political settlement."
Maintaining that the proposed elections were "a door to full negotiations", Mr Major said "these could include Sinn Fe in, but only, of course, if there is an unequivocal return to the ceasefire."
Following the Taoiseach's weekend decision, Mr Major suspended ministerial contact with Sinn Fe in. But British government sources subsequently made it clear that contact would be maintained at official level - and that elected Sinn Fe in representatives would continue to be dealt with on purely local matters.
Mr Major told the House: "That is also the position of the Irish Government. They have made it clear to Sinn Fein that their attitude and willingness to meet at political level will be determined by whether the IRA ceasefire is restored. We and the Irish Government are at one on this: the ball is in the court of Sinn Fe in and the IRA, if indeed that distinction means anything."
That swipe - and a forthright condemnation of last Fridays "evil act" apart - Mr Major's statement to MPs was distinctly lacking in rhetoric of the kind which Dublin feared could have compounded the crisis.
But the measure of its seriousness was evident in Mr Major's decision to address the British people on television last night. With the apparatus of a full scale security operation visible on the streets of London and Northern Ireland, the government machine was in over drive to reassure the British public that protective measures relaxed over the past 17 months had been swiftly restored.
Speaking on the BBC, Mr Major echoed earlier warnings from Scotland Yard that further IRA attacks could be expected. But he vowed "the IRA will never bomb their way to the conference table.
But while security forces in Britain and the North went on full alert, Mr Major made it clear that his government was determined "to find a way through to the negotiations with all those committed to democracy".
In the Commons he said Sinn Fein's leaders claim that they did not know about the bomb at South Quay and the IRA's ceasefire statement. But they have refused either to condemn or dissociate themselves from either. Sinn Fe in must decide whether they are a front for the IRA or a democratic political party committed to the ballot or the bullet."
Promising an intensification of talks with those parties "which have not, for the present, disqualified themselves", Mr Major insisted: "The aim is, as it always has been, to establish the necessary confidence to enable negotiations between all parties to start."
And he continued: "The objective of all our actions and policies before and since the ceasefire has been to get to a position where all constitutional democratic parties can get around a table together. Everything else is a means to that essential end."
As proposed by the Mitchell report he said, "decommissioning could go ahead in parallel" with the negotiations he sought.
Mr Major's position was again underpinned by a renewal of the Westminster bipartisan approach. Mr Tony Blair, the Labour leader, said Mr Major was right to consider alternative proposals for a way forward, including from the Irish Government. Mr Paddy Ashdown for the Liberal Democrats believed the two governments could reach a compromise.