Tomorrow's deadline for the devolution of power to the Northern Ireland Assembly will not be met, the Northern Secretary has said.
But Dr Mo Mowlam has promised to trigger the d'Hondt procedure for the automatic allocation of government ministries no later than the "natural" deadline of the week beginning March 29th, the week of Good Friday.
Sinn Fein expressed "concern and disappointment" at Dr Mowlam's announcement, saying it was "a further and unnecessary delay". The party's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said: "The setting-up of the executive is clearly a matter of political will. If that will is missing at present, it begs the question where will it be found before the end of the month."
But Ulster Unionist senior negotiator, Mr Reg Empey, said the onus was now on the Provisional IRA to begin decommissioning.
At Stormont yesterday, the Northern Secretary said that after a round of consultations with the parties she had "heard different views from different parties" and decided that March 10th would not be the best time to run d'Hondt.
"I recognise that will disappoint some, for which I'm sorry. But we all want an effective executive on which both communities will be represented. My consultations with the parties showed that would not be the result if d'Hondt were moved on Wednesday. Some parties feared it might even collapse the process." The UUP has stated that it will not sit in the executive with Sinn Fein without a "credible" beginning to IRA decommissioning, while Sinn Fein insists there should be no precondition to its entry into government.
Dr Mowlam said a three-week reprieve gave the parties the "time and space to find a way forward". She said progress must be made before Easter, however, adding that June's European elections and the marching season would soon be looming large.
Informal talks between the parties in the US next week would be followed by an intensive round of talks on their return to Belfast, she added. "D'Hondt is just a procedure - it can be run at any time but power can only be transferred and exercised with cross-community support," she said. She stressed that with the signing of the four treaties on North-South and British-Irish bodies in Dublin yesterday and the taking of legislation to Westminster for approval, the British government had met its target for completing the necessary preparations for devolution.
The Northern Ireland departments were also ready to be restructured into 10 agreed departments, she said. "Finding a constructive way to implement the d'Hondt procedure is difficult but it is a problem we all share. We've come so far because we've always moved forward together. With determination and courage we can take the next steps," Dr Mowlam added.
Responding to the Northern Secretary's announcement, Alliance deputy leader Mr Seamus Close said: "I trust that those who have created the difficulties, namely the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Fein, will use this time constructively and positively in the search for language that will assist the situation, rather than continuing to use macho language which is only exacerbating the problems." Speaking earlier at Stormont, Sinn Fein president Mr Gerry Adams said the process was in "crisis, big time". He said: "The context and seriousness of the situation should not be underestimated.
"If we reduce this to a game, the only ones who can win are the rejectionists and those who don't want the agreement to work. It's all about trying to force Sinn Fein out of the political process. These people visualise the IRA being forced back to war."
Mr Adams said this was not a threat and he would do "all in his power" to ensure the IRA did not return to violence.