The British and Irish governments will try, before Christmas, to bridge the "remaining gap" in the peace process, MPs were told yesterday.
Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy said that despite the failure to clinch a deal on Wednesday, "remarkable progress" had been made.
"I am absolutely convinced that the day when the final piece of the jigsaw can be put in place is not far off," he told the House of Commons yesterday. Mr Murphy said he would meet the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, and they would hold talks with the relevant political parties next week.
There would also be a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference next Thursday.
"I remain optimistic that we will be able to resolve the outstanding issues and restore devolution," he said.
Mr Murphy said the outstanding issue was "about more than photographs. It is about confidence and trust between the parties."
However, yesterday had been a "very significant milestone in that journey towards lasting peace and stability".
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Mr David Lidington said he shared Mr Murphy's disappointment that a comprehensive agreement had not yet proved possible.
"We welcome your determination and that of the Irish Government to press ahead in the hope that a settlement can be reached, and preferably this side of a general election," he said.
However, he said the "prime obstacle" to further progress "remains the reluctance of republicans to show openly that they have completed their transition from terrorism and physical force into a political movement that campaigns to achieve its objectives exclusively through democratic and peaceful means".
"After so many false dawns, isn't it wholly understandable that there is now widespread public scepticism in Northern Ireland about their further pledges and a demand for concrete evidence that decommissioning has taken place?
"If the IRA is so vehemently opposed to that condition being attached, there is nothing at all to stop them now from going ahead and simply delivering the decommissioning and cessation of paramilitary activity they tell us they want to carry out."
Mr Murphy replied that he suspected there is "an element" of scepticism in Northern Ireland, but added: "I hope too that there is only disappointment rather than despair because...the reality is that the bulk of this document is about agreement".
He said the issue of photographic evidence had been there since the meeting at Leeds Castle in September "but we didn't agree on it - that's the point".
"Clearly the IRA has a different view from everybody else on that," he said. "Our view is that whatever it takes to persuade people confidently that transparency has occurred is what we will accept."
PA