The British and Irish governments are confident that by Friday all the main parties will have given conditional approval to the St Andrews Agreement but they have still to find a solution to the latest standoff between the DUP and Sinn Féin.
On Monday Sinn Féin delivered a conditional "yes" to the document while senior DUP sources said they had received overwhelming support for the course the party was pursuing in relation to the St Andrews Agreement.
This evening is the deadline for DUP members and supporters responding to the party's consultation on the document. One source said so far it had received "thousands" of responses to its Your Verdict consultation paper and that they were "overwhelmingly positive".
This will allow the two governments state that the parties have provided a qualified "yes" to the paper by their deadline for such a response of this Friday. However, neither Dublin nor London could outline how the next major deadline of November 24th to appoint the Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness respectively as First Minister and Deputy First Minister designate could be met.
The DUP and Sinn Féin remain deadlocked over the issues of a commitment to policing and when justice and policing powers would be devolved to a restored Northern Executive, with some politicians saying it may take the intervention of the British prime minister Tony Blair and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern to resolve the impasse in the next week or so.
Sinn Féin is holding to its position that Mr McGuinness cannot sign a pledge of office that incorporates a commitment to policing and law and order by November 24th as this would pre-empt a Sinn Féin ardfheis on policing, which has yet to be called.
Equally Sinn Féin is demanding that it must have a timeframe for the creation of a department of justice within the Northern Executive.
The DUP, however, insists Dr Paisley will not take the position of First Minister designate unless Mr McGuinness has signed the pledge. Dr Paisley also reiterated yesterday that the DUP could provide no date for the devolution of justice powers.
Dr Paisley described Mr Adams's conditional acceptance of the St Andrews Agreement as a "major step backwards", adding, "everyone knows, except seemingly Sinn Féin supporters, that devolution of policing and justice powers will only occur when the people are content for it to be devolved.
"Sinn Féin has complained that they are not yet ready to endorse the police because of their internal problems. The democratic process cannot be twisted and turned for Sinn Féin's convenience. The DUP will be maintaining its position that there must be delivery of support for the police immediately before this process can move forward," said Dr Paisley.
Sinn Féin MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Michelle Gildernew yesterday called on the British and Irish governments to convene a meeting of the Stormont Programme for Government Committee "to facilitate dialogue between Sinn Féin, the DUP and the other parties".
British and Irish sources said that what was important was to ensure Friday's response to the St Andrews Agreement was generally positive, and thereafter there would be greater concentration on meeting the more important November 24th deadline.
