Talks among the Northern parties and the British and Irish governments broke up at Stormont without agreement last night. The British and Irish governments are now considering publishing their own "take it or leave it" proposals. Gerry Moriarty and Dan Keenan report.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, said late last night they would brief the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, on the two days of intensive meetings and whether they believed the gaps between the parties could be bridged.
A statement said the two leaders would assess the merits of presenting proposals on "the complex and politically sensitive issues" standing in the way of a restoration of the Stormont institutions.
There are no early plans for fresh talks.
It also emerged the two governments may publish their own "take it or leave it" proposals on how to break the deadlock over the issue of ministerial accountability to safeguard the deal that appeared available at Leeds Castle.
The governments are concerned that without their intervention, the impasse, between the DUP on one side and Sinn Féin and the SDLP on the other, on how to resolve the accountability issue could jeopardise the opportunity for a deal, a senior talks source told The Irish Times.
There was also a suggestion last night that were the outline deal hammered out at Leeds Castle to collapse, the governments might enter into separate direct talks with Sinn Féin to try to ensure that the IRA's reputed commitment to decommission and end activity would remain on the table.
Despite two days of talks at Stormont involving Mr Kitt, Mr Murphy and the parties, there was still no sign that either side would sign up to the compromises that were tabled in recent days.
"There seems to be paralysis in the Stormont talks and if the governments don't act to end it, what was achieved at Leeds Castle could unravel," said a senior talks insider before last night's break up.
Dublin and London are now seriously considering tabling their own "best read" of what would be acceptable to the disputing parties "that would involve some grief for all sides but would be consistent with the Good Friday agreement", he added.
"Of course the governments would prefer for the parties to solve the accountability issue themselves.
"They would only publish 'take it or leave it' proposals if they felt they would run with all the parties, and after some serious tick-tacking with the parties," he said.
The British and Irish governments, but particularly the Irish, are mindful of nationalist concerns that the DUP proposals on accountability could hide a "booby-trap" that would allow for an effective form of unionist majority rule and could be used to emasculate the North-South bodies.
Equally, they want to see a deal that would allow the DUP contend that their concerns over ministers having too much autonomy were met.
Another source last night suggested that when the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, spoke about having to seek an alternative if the current talks failed that he was referring to a need to ensure that the IRA offer was not withdrawn.
While unionists complain they have still not seen any specific detail about what the IRA is offering, senior sources insist that the IRA offer is major and radical.
"If David Trimble back then had what is on offer to Ian Paisley now he would not be able to wipe the smile off his face," said a senior source.
Before last night's talks broke up, the DUP had become the focus of criticism from the other pro-agreement parties.
Proposals on Assembly structures and North-South arrangements drawn up by the two governments met with little widespread support and were attacked outright by Sinn Féin and the SDLP.
The documents, copies of which were obtained by The Irish Times, "attacked the fundamentals of the agreement", according to Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin. The papers were "absolutely unacceptable", he added.
Mr Mark Durkan, the SDLP leader, said his position remained the Belfast Agreement and he would not depart from that.
He accused the DUP of working under the guise of its mandate to undermine the agreement.
The DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, called for trust and for the other parties "to fast forward" to his party's current position.