The Belfast Agreement - the best hope for Northern Ireland - is being implemented. Contrary to media speculation since December 3rd, there is no crisis at Stormont. There has been a hiccup (nothing more) in relations between the Ulster Unionist Party and the SDLP.

If we all pause before speaking, it should be possible to configure Strands 1, 2 and 3 before Christmas, thereby meeting the targeted deadline of devolution in the first quarter of 1999 - if, and it is an important if, the IRA has begun to decommission.

Strand 2 was always going to be difficult. At Castle Buildings the UUP beat back a Dublin offensive on North-South co-operation in the Mitchell draft paper of April 6th, reducing some 49 areas of government to the six bodies specified in paragraph 9 (11).

The compromise was twofold: a list of 12 suggested areas in the annex; and the idea of a work programme to be completed by October 31st. The UUP accepted this, even though we were aware that an administration in transition would not be fully equipped to create new institutions of governance in areas of policy for which we had no responsibility.

In keeping with the interdependence of the Belfast Agreement, we saw Strands 1 and 3 moving forward at the same time as North-South co-operation. To this end, we had people working on implementation - even before the Assembly met on July 1st.

On Strand 2 we researched possibilities thoroughly with the help of officials in Belfast and Dublin. Ideas were exchanged with the SDLP from late September. We favoured discrete areas of government, finding solutions to problems not centrally addressed by the two states in Ireland.

The SDLP, in contrast, appeared to be bent on a serious economic takeover of Northern Ireland by the Republic. Thus their emphasis upon tourism marketing abroad, controlling EU programmes and a big trade and investment body.

The SDLP big three were included in an Irish Government paper of October 30th, which tried again to squeeze many different functions into seven so-called bodies. This amounted to an attempt to renegotiate Strand 2 of the Agreement. It was a smash-and-grab raid on Northern Ireland, contrary to the spirit and letter of what we had agreed on Good Friday.

The UUP had sought an early meeting of the North-South Council weeks before, only to meet with Dublin foot-dragging. With one day to go to the October 31st date in paragraph 8 of Strand 2, we were faced with a package I had refused to touch with a 40-foot pole before Easter. What had been left on the cutting-room floor in Castle Buildings was once again being promoted actively by pan-nationalism.

Despite this, we put together an offer of six bodies, which David Trimble and Michael McGimpsey presented to Bertie Ahern in Dublin on Friday, November 13th. It was accepted. The offer included an Irish language body (with an east-west aspect) and a modified tourism proposal. As unionists, we have a pragmatic view of North-South co-operation, and sought simply to implement that part of the agreement. We appreciated that nationalist Ireland sees such institutions in terms of identity. We accept that as a consequence; but it cannot be a reason for unionists ignoring the protocols of good, accountable government.

When Tony Blair came to Stormont House on Wednesday, November 25th, the First Minister designate re-tabled the offer - a Strand 2 draft of a statement on implementing the agreement, which could have been presented to the Assembly (along with proposals on Northern Ireland departments and an early meeting of the British-Irish Council).

By the start of last week a great deal of work had been done. Agreement, as David Trimble said later, was tantalisingly close.

However, other parties had been focusing on their own deadline of November 30th, apparently on the basis of out-of-date information about the legal creation of paragraph 9 (11) bodies, and without a realistic regard to the problem of decommissioning by the IRA before an executive including Sinn Fein could be formed.

This deadline, on the basis of the nationalist smash-and-grab, and with high-wire acts scripted for not one but two heads of government, produced the hiccup of last Wednesday night/Thursday morning.

There was no overall agreement on Strands 1 and 2 (3 being brought back into the picture). The number of departments was discussed briefly, as was the location of finance functions. Only two North-South bodies were considered - trade and EU programmes (and there was not even an agreed text on the latter). UUP colleagues and advisers left Parliament Buildings in the early hours, it having been made clear to the Prime Minister that we would agree to six North-South bodies.

If we had believed there was an imminent agreement, we would have stayed to finalise it with other parties, and make sure it had been committed clearly and properly to paper.

There are two ways forward.

The first is to work out the details of the 10 departments, and put the three UUP North-South bodies (waterways, marine matters and food safety) alongside the SDLP's considerably reduced tourism, EU programmes and trade bodies - making six in all. (Other areas for co-operation can be covered in the agreement, there being a need to bring the work of officials in the two administrations under democratic accountability in the Assembly.)

If we are faced with a continuing refusal to negotiate, the only way forward is to sweep everything off the table. The ideas, which have been worked on over weeks and months, will fall to the floor. They can of course be picked up in a concentrated negotiation during the rest of this week - or whenever.

David Trimble (in his absence in the United States, Norway and Sweden) has instructed colleagues to put both of these positions to whoever will listen. It is important for reasons of public confidence that Northern Ireland's politicians do, and be seen to be doing, the job they were elected to Stormont to carry out.

I remain hopeful that when the Assembly meets next Monday and Tuesday members will be asked to take note of detailed proposals that go a considerable way to completing the picture of the new Northern Ireland government. The ball will then be back - quite rightly - in the court of Sinn Fein and the IRA.

John Taylor MP is deputy leader of the UUP.