The Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, made an implicit appeal to Dublin and the SDLP to help him ease the pressure on the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, over the Patten reforms of the RUC.
While again affirming the British government's commitment to implement the Patten reforms fully, Mr Mandelson told the Labour conference that "give and take" on all sides was the "bottom line" requirement to preserve the Belfast Agreement.
In a barely-coded message to Dublin and the SDLP, Mr Mandelson warned: "There will be no agreement if either tradition is forced away from the table. Whether the issue is policing, or flags, or the pace at which we reduce the security profile, we have to find ways to maintain everyone's confidence in the agreement that has delivered so much."
This interpretation of Mr Mandelson's speech was confirmed by an authoritative British government source who told The Irish Times: "Let's not repeat the mistakes of Sunningdale. We cannot afford to lose moderate unionism and any who think we can are fooling themselves."
Mr Mandelson coupled his warning about the worsening political climate in Northern Ireland with an assertion that dissident republicans "will not prevail" and an announcement of a new crackdown on "the rump of paramilitarism" and "the organised crime it has spawned". Mr Mandelson confirmed he asked the security minister, Mr Adam Ingram, to head a new agency armed with confiscation powers to recover the proceeds of crime.
The confiscation agency's job would be "to seize non-cash assets, and prevent the use of land and property to launder money gained from crime".
The Northern Ireland Office last night confirmed the plan was effectively to follow the legislative approach operative in the Republic. A spokesman confirmed the powers referred to would be new and enable the authorities to target "non-cash" assets, such as hotels, pubs and other businesses used as fronts for illegal paramilitary funding.
The spokesman said Mr Ingram would preside over a refocusing of the activities of various agencies and that discussions had taken place with Dublin about a reappraisal of cross-Border priorities in this area. It is understood the operative "burden of proof" to secure confiscations would be at civil rather than criminal court level.
Following last week's attack on the MI6 headquarters in London, Mr Mandelson told the conference: "Our security will remain tight" and he said the irony was that "it is dissidents, not the government or the security forces, who are the ones preventing faster normalisation in areas such as south Armagh".
While paying tribute to the "combined professionalism and physical sacrifice" of the police and army, Mr Mandelson renewed his assault on the "dark side" of Northern Ireland, declaring: "We in politics must do more to attack the racketeering, the smuggling and drugs dealing that is feeding those egos and financing the rump of paramilitarism that stands between Northern Ireland and the decent society we are trying to create."
Mr Mandelson won some of his loudest applause as he continued: "While our focus, rightly, is on defeating terrorism, we must now reach further and grip the organised crime it has spawned."
Spelling out his "bottom line" approach, Mr Mandelson told delegates some decisions - for example over prisoner releases - had been genuinely difficult and were "only justified if they take us further to achieving our goal".
"It means having courage in other areas, too," he said, including courage to recognise "that the agreement can only continue if it has the support of both traditions in Northern Ireland".
And he added: "If that means sacrificing a little of your own interests in order to keep others on board, so be it."