The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, firmly expects the formal transfer of powers to the Assembly and other institutions such as the North-South ministerial council to take place in the spring.
At a joint news conference with Mr John Hume, held shortly after their arrival in Oslo for today's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, Mr Trimble warned against unduly negative assessments and insisted the process was not in crisis.
"There is every reason to expect that the institutional side of the agreement, which is in the process of being put in place at the moment, will go live next spring.
"It's a question of whether it's February or March and that's the issue at the moment. That will depend as much on circumstances as anything else. There's no reason to think otherwise.
"By institutional side, of course, I mean the transfer of functions to the Assembly, bringing into existence the Civic Forum, the North-South Council, the British-Irish Council and so on.
"The matters which are then ongoing are matters which relate to security issues, to prisoners and of course to paramilitaries. Most of those have started and, by their nature, will take a little time to implement.
"The one area where we haven't seen a beginning is with regard to the disarmament and disbandment of paramilitary organisations which, under the agreement, has to be completed within the two-year period mentioned, and that's the one area about which there is some doubt and uncertainty.
"Although it's very unwise to make predictions, my own feeling is that while paramilitaries are clearly very reluctant to give, nonetheless they will find themselves compelled by the weight of public and political opinion, in particular the settled will of the people demonstrated in the referenda, as John Hume has mentioned.
"They will find themselves compelled by all of that to begin, as indeed they must begin. There will be some difficulties there, but I am confident that we will see, and we will look back to, April of 1998 as being the watershed in the affairs of Northern Ireland," Mr Trimble said.
But he cautioned against what he called "overdone assessments and reactions" to current developments. He said: "There is no crisis."
When asked what message he was given by President Clinton when they met in Washington on Tuesday, he said: "We got a message, as usual, of encouragement and support. The President has, over the course of the last number of years, made clear his support for this process, most noticeably in terms of his visits to Northern Ireland which have had such considerable impact on the peace process.
"He is very anxious that the positive aspects of the situation be developed and is prepared, as he has been throughout, to give quiet, diplomatic support to this process while operating in an inclusive manner."
Mr Trimble would not comment fully on a report that he had failed to applaud when Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams was receiving a peace award in Washington on Tuesday. "I don't pay quite as close attention to my physical actions as some journalists appear to be [doing]," he said.
Both men said they had not yet considered what to do with the 7.6 million kroner (about £688,000) from the prize, which they will share.
Mr Trimble said: "I need time to think about this matter because I haven't yet given any thought to it." Mr Hume said: "I haven't even thought about it yet but I will and, knowing me as you do, I'll spend it sensibly."
Commenting on the current state of the peace process, the SDLP leader said: "It's our duty to implement the will of the people as soon as possible. I'm not in the business of fixing target dates, but the full energies of myself and my party will be devoted to implementing the agreement in all its details as soon as possible."