Tony Blair will tomorrow receive his clearest indication to date of whether or not DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley is prepared to agree to a power-sharing deal with Sinn Féin by the British and Irish governments' deadline of November 24th.
Mr Blair and Dr Paisley are to discuss the prospects of restoring devolution tomorrow at Downing Street ahead of a meeting provisionally scheduled for the end of the week between Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and the British prime minister.
Dublin and London are still planning to host intensive devolution talks with the Northern parties ahead of the deadline.
These were originally scheduled for the second week in October in St Andrews in Scotland, but diary difficulties for Mr Blair could put back that date to later in October or early November, officials said yesterday.
Dr Paisley, at Stormont yesterday, where the limited Assembly returned after the summer recess, disputed a claim made earlier in Dundalk by Northern Secretary Peter Hain that the IRA's "war is over".
He was insistent that the DUP would not enter into a Northern Executive with Sinn Féin in the current circumstances.
"There is no progress being made because the British government, evidently supported by the Irish Government, are dedicated to have IRA/Sinn Féin in government as they are now," he told the Assembly.
"That will be resisted democratically by the party that I lead, and by others that have the same convictions.
"We have yet to see an end to the illegality and criminality of the IRA. By their very existence they have robbed our Northern Ireland economy of millions of pounds in revenue.
"We know that IRA/Sinn Féin refuses to support the police, the courts and the rule of law. Such behaviour cannot prove the basis for admission to any government in a democratic country."
Dr Paisley said unionists were not blocking a deal, and that Mr Hain would be better "served ensuring that IRA/Sinn Féin is off the backs of the people and that the days of crime and gangsterism are over".
Mr Hain held a 90-minute meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Dundalk yesterday as part of the renewed effort to restore devolution.
His view on Sinn Féin and the IRA was at variance with Dr Paisley's, and is expected to form part of the arguments for a deal that Mr Blair will put to the DUP leader tomorrow.
Mr Hain said: "For the provisional IRA the war is over. That is what the IMC [Independent Monitoring Commission] said, and I have to agree with them. I have seen nothing else to contradict that."
Mr Hain, viewed as a supporter of Gordon Brown to succeed the prime minister, said he believed Mr Blair would see the peace process through to a conclusion, and that no successor of his at Downing Street would have the same commitment to the process.
"I think that the prime minister Tony Blair will still be in Number 10 when the deal is done. It's absolutely crucial that all the parties take advantage of his own detailed involvement and attention, and the same goes for the Taoiseach," he said.
"I don't think you will ever get a British prime minister again who will give this kind of forensic, detailed attention to solving these problems because the world will move - a point I keep making to all MLAs - without them if they don't do the deal," added Mr Hain.
"There is nobody else - no successor who can do the type of job that the Taoiseach has done and the prime minister has done. They know all the people, they know the issues inside out. They have the strategic brilliance to be able to conclude all of this."
