The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, has appealed to Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists to end the `blame game' and work together to restore the Assembly and Executive.
He said he understood the anger of some parties at his decision to suspend the institutions. "I know there is disappointment about what has happened and I think it created quite a shock to suspend the institutions, especially when they were going so well.
"But I think that what people are now agreed on is that the standing and shouting has got to end. People have got to concentrate on the reality of the situation rather than the rhetoric. Rebuilding the consensus is needed so the institutions have the support of both traditions."
Speaking on UTV Live, he said Sinn Fein's criticism of him was "inevitable". "What people have been doing over the last period is nursing their own constituencies rather than concentrating on what needs to be done in order to move forward."
He noted that Mr Gerry Adams had said the Belfast Agreement was "in tatters", not that it had failed. "It hasn't failed. It has done very well to everyone. Every part of the Good Friday agreement is going ahead and has been implemented or there are plans to do so - with the exception, though, of the arms issue. That is the one that has dogged us. We have got to find some way around that."
He said there was a need for all the parties to talk to each other and he hinted that the two governments should consider convening a meeting of the pro-agreement parties for a "general discussion".
Sinn Fein yesterday said Mr Mandelson must immediately restore the assembly and the executive. Speaking after a meeting with the Northern Secretary at Stormont, the party said it was the only way of ending the current political crisis.
Mr Mandelson held separate meetings with Sinn Fein and the UUP at Stormont. The discussions failed to break the deadlock. Sinn Fein's former health minister, Ms Bairbre de Brun, said: "We outlined our analysis of the present crisis and we stressed the need for him, first of all, to reinstate the institutions.
"We also stressed the need for the British and Irish governments to move forward and work together in implementing all other aspects of the Good Friday agreement, particular those in relation to equality, human rights, a new policing service, the criminal justice review and all those other aspects and mechanisms that will help create a new society."
Sinn Fein assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly said: "We are now dealing with a British veto as opposed to a unionist veto. Unilaterally the British took the institutions down and it is up to them to put them back up."
Speaking after his party's meeting with the Northern Secretary, Mr Trimble said the onus to end the decommissioning stalemate lay with Sinn Fein and the IRA. "Suspension arose because republicans failed to implement the agreement," he said. "What we want to hear from Mr Adams is that he and the republican movement will finally undertake their part of the agreement. As for the suggestion we have had from republicans that they were going to bin the process - withdraw from it and so on - that is most unhelpful."
Mr Rory Dougan of the 32-County Sovereignty Movement said the current political situation was unsurprising. "No republican or realistic observer should have expected any other course given the history and nature of British rule in Ireland. It is time for all to return to a republican strategy that will end British rule in Ireland."
DUP assembly member Mr Nigel Dodds said there was no prospect of decommissioning before May. "It is clear Sinn Fein/IRA will return to the negotiating table with a new set of demands. It is vital unionism is represented by a strong, principled team of negotiators who have the integrity to hold firm and the ingenuity to make progress."