As the Hillsborough talks hosted by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British prime minister, Mr Blair, progressed into the night, the main protagonists, Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party, gave little away on what they were prepared to concede to break the deadlock.
Before embarking on what all the participants agreed were "very tense and sensitive negotiations", the Sinn Fein, UUP and SDLP leaders briefly and separately spoke to the large media gathering camped outside Hills borough Castle.
The Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, said that in recent weeks the party had engaged in intensive discussions with the British and Irish governments as they explored ways of trying to save the political process.
"It is my very, very certain opinion that the British Prime Minister has the answer to all this," said Mr Adams.
"Mr Blair should make it very, very clear that he is restoring the institutions and going ahead with the forward implementation of the agreement."
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, said the onus lay with the republican movement to end the impasse. "We are waiting to hear whether republicans are going to do anything. We want to see the agreement implemented wholly and in the spirit in which it was made." Mr Trimble said he wanted to hear a form of words from republicans that would lead to action on the crucial issue of IRA weapons.
"We have yet to hear from republicans what they are prepared to do, and I emphasise to do, rather than simply to say. While we are waiting to hear their words, we are waiting to hear words that they will undertake actions to implement their part of the agreement."
Mr Trimble said there had been no contact between his party and Sinn Fein over recent days and accordingly he was not in a position to say what the republicans might be prepared to concede to help restore the political institutions and end the stalemate over IRA decommissioning.
There were "a lot of nationalists" who had not fully absorbed the full implications of the Belfast Agreement. "The agreement recognises the legitimacy of Northern Ireland's position within the United Kingdom. Therefore, that means that nationalists recognise the legitimacy of British sovereignty."
He said some nationalists did not recognise that the British parliament was sovereign in Northern Ireland. "Some nationalists were going along saying that the agreement was some sort of joint authority, or joint sovereignty. It is not."
Northern Ireland was still a British state, he said.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, welcomed the fact the two governments and the main political parties were seriously working to find a resolution. He said of lot of serious dialogue was taking place within Hillsborough Castle.
