The North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, has said he does not expect IRA decommissioning to occur by the end of this month. He believed "another approach" would be taken, involving "very important wording" from Gen John de Chastelain.
"There will be, I hope, wordings from the IRA especially which will indicate their position has softened. There will be an attempt to introduce time-tabling into the process as opposed to the time-scale which exists in the agreement," he told Sky television.
When asked if his colleague, Mr David Trimble, could maintain his position as Ulster Unionist leader without a weapons hand-over, Mr Mallon said: "Well, I think the choice is there facing all of us."
"Which is more important, that the argument is won or lost on the question of decommissioning? Or we retain the agreement, we retain the political process and we retain above all the only vehicle through which decommissioning will ever occur, and that is through the Good Friday agreement?
"That's the choice facing David Trimble, Gerry Adams, myself, every single person involved in this process. And I think when you put that choice and look at it, there's only one answer to it - that the greater good, the greater importance, the greater responsibility to the entire community is to ensure that this agreement lasts, that it works in its totality and that peace is reinforced."
In a message to the people of Northern Ireland published in the Belfast Telegraph, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, included illegal weapons as one of the issues on which progress must be made.
"I cannot force progress alone. Political leaders will only be able to take part in an executive if their parties back them. Gen de Chastelain can help the paramilitaries decommission weapons - a necessary element of the Good Friday agreement. But he cannot force them," Mr Blair said.
Mr Blair held a brief telephone conversation with the Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, on Tuesday night. This afternoon he meets an Ulster Unionist delegation consisting of Mr Trimble, Mr John Taylor, and Sir Reg Empey.
A spokesman for Mr Trimble said it was "a very key meeting ahead of the visit to the US, a very significant meeting considering we have now missed the March 10th deadline."
The spokesman declined to comment on a report that Mr Trimble had given the UUP Assembly Member for East Antrim, Mr Roy Beggs jnr, a written assurance, prior to the critical February 16th Assembly vote, that he would resign as First Minister designate and party leader rather than enter an executive with Sinn Fein in the absence of IRA decommissioning. But the spokesman added: "That's our manifesto commitment. He has given that commitment to the entire party."
As Mr Trimble prepared to meet the Prime Minister, the Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said the IRA must hand over its Semtex, heavy machine-guns and ground-to-air missiles if Sinn Fein was to be allowed on the new executive.
Mr Donaldson, MP for Lagan Valley, told PA News: "The Ulster Unionist Party's executive has been very clear on this issue. The party will not sit in government with Sinn Fein in the absence of any credible start to decommissioning. No form of words will satisfy our party without actual decommissioning."
The Assembly parties meet in a round-table session this afternoon at Stormont's Castle Buildings at the invitation of the Political Development Minister, Mr Paul Murphy. In a statement, the Workers' Party urged the participants to "be constructive and use the meeting to move the whole peace process forward".
Mr Tommy Owens of Co Tyrone, Workers' Party general secretary in Northern Ireland, said: "The Stormont parties should not waste this opportunity in another round of wrangling. The meeting with Paul Murphy can be a cornerstone of new political construction or made into yet another millstone plaguing the Northern Ireland peace process."