Details were beginning to emerge early today of a possible formula which could safeguard the Belfast Agreement as the Taoiseach, the British Prime Minister and the main pro-agreement parties worked late into the night at Weston Park in Shropshire to try to break the political deadlock.
The talks broke up shortly after midnight and are due to resume early this morning. The prospects of a deal today still hang in the balance however because of an absence of clarity on what the IRA might do on arms and what Ulster Unionists could tolerate on policing, according to senior talks sources.
The package which could end the stalemate, the sources added, would allow for major amendments to the Police Act to cover issues such as greater accountability for the Policing Board, independent inquiries into the killings of Pat Finucane, Rosemary Nelson and Robert Hamill, and - as a quid pro quo for unionists - a possible Irish Government inquiry into allegations of some Garda collusion with the IRA.
The deal could also provide for former paramilitaries joining the Policing Board or the smaller District Policing Partnerships, a step which could trigger fierce protest from the unionist community.
It is also understood that the British government has provided details on a further programme of demilitarisation.
The issues of policing and arms are proving to be stubborn. The violence which erupted in the nationalist Ardoyne in Belfast on the Twelfth and the RUC claim the trouble appeared to be orchestrated by republicans, cast a sour note as Ulster Unionists, Sinn Fein and the SDLP returned to Weston Park yesterday. Nonetheless, senior talks sources said that considerable progress has been made on policing and demilitarisation. There was speculation that if a comprehensive package was agreed, the IRA might be prepared to seal the two or three dumps already seen by the international inspectors.
One insider however said the governments still did not know what the IRA might do on weapons. "What matters is that we can get something that will al low Gen de Chastelain to verify that the IRA has started putting its weapons beyond use." Leaving Weston Park last night, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said he had put a series of propositions to Mr Ahern and Mr Blair on how issues crucial to republicans such as policing and demilitarisation might be resolved.
On IRA arms, he said: "The international independent commission on decommissioning is the body to sort that out with the armed groups. It should be removed as a precondition."
The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists were holding up progress.
"It is the Ulster Unionist party in terms of the full working of the institutions of the agreement, and it is the republican movement, through Sinn Fein, in relation to sorting the issue of weaponry. Everybody knows that and everybody should be aware of what is at stake." Entering Weston Park yesterday evening, the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, complained that republicans were refusing to give ground on arms. He suggested the Ardoyne violence was designed "as a crude means of influencing decisions the [British] government might take over the next day or two" on policing. "What does this indicate with regard to a [republican] commitment to peace?"
