The DUP and Sinn Féin will today receive a slightly amended version of the British-Irish blueprint for restoring devolution and will be given over the weekend to "reflect" on whether to accept or reject its proposals.
The DUP will have the governments' response to the points of clarification the Rev Ian Paisley raised with the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister in London on Wednesday in time for tonight's meeting of the DUP's 80- to 100-member ruling executive, according to well-placed sources.
Tonight's meeting is viewed as important in testing the mood of the wider DUP membership, although Mr Ahern and Mr Tony Blair believe it will be for the central DUP leadership, primarily Dr Paisley, to decide on whether to endorse or rebuff the governments' proposals.
Senior sources said the parties had a "matter of days" to issue their final responses to the blueprint, indicating that the deadline can't go beyond the middle or latter end of next week. "The parties will have a chance over the weekend to reflect on how they will respond," said an insider at the talks.
Sinn Féin raised several points of concern over the original blueprint, while Dr Paisley wanted answers to 40 points of clarification, it is understood.
The Taoiseach indicated that the governments were able to deal with some of the questions but that others were viewed as outside the terms of the talks.
There are no major amendments to the blueprint, it is believed.
Dublin and London are unable to predict whether their proposals for dealing with the decommissioning transparency issue would be tolerated by both the DUP and republicans.
The governments' position remains that, in order to convince the DUP of republican bona fides, there should be some future photographic evidence of IRA arsenals being rendered beyond use.
This would be in addition to independent Catholic and Protestant church witnesses overseeing IRA disarmament with Gen John de Chastelain.
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, said that how decommissioning took place must be solely a matter between Gen de Chastelain and the IRA, while the DUP has consistently said there must be a "visual element" to disarmament.
The governments are conscious that this has the potential to wreck the chances of a deal which all sides agree is tantalisingly close. Senior insiders said they just could not read whether republicans could acquiesce in the decommissioning proposals.
"Sinn Féin are inscrutable on the matter. They haven't said they can live with the proposals, and they haven't said they can't," said a leading source.
Mr Ahern said on Wednesday that if the proposals were rejected the governments would publish them to allow the public assess whether or not they were fair.
While Mr Adams was yesterday placing responsibility for movement on the DUP, the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, was insisting the onus was on republicans.
