British and Irish officials were working late into the night in an urgent effort to agree proposals identifying the likely elements of a political settlement on Northern Ireland.
Sources said the two governments were themselves "close" to concluding a "heads of agreement" paper which they still hoped they might be able to present to the parties to the multiparty talks when they resume later today at Stormont.
However, with a number of issues still to be resolved, it appeared Dublin was having difficulty persuading Sinn Fein to agree the emerging British/Irish text identifying the issues to be addressed in the next phase of negotiations.
After a weekend of amazing behind-the-scenes diplomatic activity - spanning Dublin, Belfast, London and Tokyo, where Mr Tony Blair is continuing his Far East tour - it appeared the major difficulty centred on the issue of proposed North/South councils and agencies, and the search for "language" to define, or represent, their "executive" function.
It is understood that, in two separate telephone conversations with the British Prime Minister yesterday, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, resisted the use of the word "executive" in reference to any North/South bodies envisaged as part of any settlement.
However, nationalist sources insisted that whatever language was finally used in the paper designed to "fast forward" the talks process, provision for the exercise of executive power "has got to be there".
The dramatic attempt to reach an agreed London/Dublin text ahead of today's resumed Stormont talks was started after a highly selective, seemingly unionist-inspired leak to a British newspaper on Saturday suggesting prior agreement between Mr Blair and Mr Trimble on the likely shape of a settlement.
After lengthy discussions on Friday, British and Irish officials had pledged to seek early agreement on a joint London/Dublin text, but with the expectation that this could take another week to achieve. However, following the appearance of the Daily Telegraph story and initially confusing responses from Mr Blair's camp in Japan, it was decided to resume discussions and accelerate the search for agreement.
The Telegraph story - drawing on a British draft later confirmed as only one of a number under discussion - highlighted Mr Blair's known enthusiasm for a Northern Ireland Assembly, and suggested this would operate alongside a "Council of the Isles" drawing together representatives of the British and Irish parliaments, as well as the emerging regional assembles in other parts of the UK.
SDLP and Sinn Fein spokesmen immediately dismissed what was variously seen as "a flyer" and an attempt to play-down the crucially important Strand Two, North/South relationship in any settlement. Mr Blair yesterday reiterated his government's commitment to seek agreement in all three Strands of the talks. And the North's political development minister, Mr Paul Murphy, acknowledged that, while devolved administrations in Edinburgh and Cardiff could provide a new dimension to relations between the UK and the Republic, "people who represent nationalists will be very anxious to ensure that . . . relations between North and South in Ireland are going to be very important indeed".
No details were available last night of the latest draft London/Dublin text, although the indications were that it would be short and fairly skeletal.
However, The Irish Times understands that a revised British Irish Agreement, underpinned by "balanced constitutional change" involving the Irish Constitution and the 1920 Government of Ireland Act, will be the "motive force" of any new dispensation on the North.
And the nationalist expectation is that a series of North-South councils would be established, with each side accountable to, and mandated by, the Oireachtas and a new Northern Ireland Assembly respectively.