Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, has indicated that Northern Ireland politicians only have until Hallowe'en to do a deal which would see the restoration of the Northern Executive and Assembly.
Mr McGuinness, speaking at Stormont yesterday ahead of a meeting there today between the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, said "decision time" on whether a deal was possible was fast approaching.
He blamed the DUP for the current deadlock, claiming the Rev Ian Paisley's party was seeking to change the fundamentals of the Belfast Agreement so that unionist majority rule would be effectively restored. This would not happen in "a million years", he said.
"We need to crack this by the end of this month. That's the reality we are facing. If we don't do that I think clearly we will have arrived at a situation where the DUP are not prepared to accept the core principles of the agreement," he added.
Mr Murphy, who is back working in Northern Ireland after he fell ill at the recent British Labour Party conference in Brighton, is meeting Mr Ahern today for the first time in his new position as Minister for Foreign Affairs.
British and Irish officials continue to try to devise a formula on issues such as ministerial accountability and the election of First and Deputy First Ministers which would be acceptable to both the DUP and the pro-agreement parties, yet consistent with the agreement. Such a solution has yet to be found.
Mr Ahern and Mr Murphy, in what is viewed mainly as a "meet- and-greet" encounter between the two ministers, will engage in a "stock-take" of what progress has been achieved to date and what work is required to end the stalemate.
The Irish and British governments have strongly indicated that if the parties cannot reach agreement, the governments may feel compelled to put "take-it-or-leave it" proposals to them towards the end of this month or in November.
Meanwhile, the SDLP was criticised by Sinn Féin for suggesting at the Leeds Castle talks that it would not serve in a restored Executive if the agreement was substantially altered. The DUP similarly criticised the SDLP and Ulster Unionists over indications that, rather than serve in the Executive, both the SDLP and the UUP would take up an "opposition" role in any new executive.
The DUP MP, Mr Nigel Dodds, said such reports illustrated "just how little else these parties have to do with their time now that they are in the position of fringe parties within the political process".
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said anti-agreement unionists would be "delighted" at SDLP indications that it was considering boycotting any future Executive. "Such a move would hand additional Executive power to the DUP and if the SDLP choose what would be seen as an easy option it would be to the detriment of the nationalist community, the agreement and the peace process," he said.
The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, speaking at University College Galway last night, said what he was hearing from the governments and the other parties in relation to the attempts to restore devolution worried the party greatly.
Mr Durkan said the SDLP was not being "intransigent" or "being precious about every dot and comma of the agreement" as some parties were claiming, but was determined to protect its fundamentals.
"As the strongest advocates of the agreement, we are also the strongest advocates of greater accountability and efficiency in its institutions and workings," he said.
