The SDLP has called on all pro-agreement parties to give the two governments' proposals their "most careful consideration" when put to them.
The party's leader, Mr John Hume, on leaving Weston Park, said it was vital that everybody faced up to their "collective and individual responsibilities" to ensure a resolution of the crisis.
"Considerable disappointment will be felt at the failure to date to resolve the outstanding issues preventing the full implementation of the Good Friday agreement," he added. There had been progress on policing and demilitarisation as well as on how to ensure the stability of the political institutions. The full implementation of the agreement, however, could not be achieved without further progress on decommissioning, Mr Hume insisted.
"The SDLP accepts that decommissioning must happen within the context of the implementation of the overall settlement. However, decommissioning is part of that overall settlement and so cannot be made conditional upon the full implementation of all other aspects. This is a recipe for continued stalemate and the loss of hope for a new beginning."
In less conciliatory mood, the party's deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said his annoyance with Sinn Fein over its inflexibility on weapons had increased over the course of the talks.
He hinted that at one stage a possible agreement had been on the table but had been blocked by one of the other parties, which he did not name.