Senator George Mitchell has moved, and not a moment too soon. Among the dwindling band of journalists dedicated to coverage of his review, relief at the first indication of yesterday's adjournment was tempered by an inward groan at the thought of a resumption next week.

Were tedium enough to bring the parties to agreement, the senator could have sailed triumphantly into the sunset long since.

Much more important, there were signs of mounting impatience among the smaller parties to add to that expressed last Friday by the SDLP's Seamus Mallon. The loyalist parties, in particular, were said to be feeling the pressure, as the secrecy surrounding the protracted review fuelled suspicion and distrust among those they represent.

There was also more generally (and genuinely) a fear that the virtual exclusion of all the other parties denied them some input which might spell the difference between success and failure. And nobody arriving back at Castle Buildings yesterday morning was predicting success.

Far from it: Mr David Trimble's departure for the US to fulfil a speaking engagement at a university in Indiana had seemed to bring the proceedings to near-farce. "Arrogant" was the least of the descriptions being used to describe the Ulster Unionist leader's behaviour as the other parties braced themselves for another long day.

Certainly it seemed a bit rich that Mr Trimble should depart, and for the US of all places, at a moment when one headline had President Clinton asking the senator (whose wife and young son might have been glad of his company over the weekend) to stay put and stick with it.

However, one imperturbable talks insider insisted: "It isn't really as bad as it looks." The implication was that the next step in the process was more or less agreed, and that Mr Trimble's sudden absence made no real difference. And, when it was announced, it was immediately clear that there would be nothing farcical about the conclusion of Senator Mitchell's undertaking on behalf of the two governments and President Clinton.

It had never been conceivable that Senator Mitchell would announce himself or his review of the Belfast Agreement a failure. Nor was there the remotest whiff of it in his statement announcing that he would now consult Mr Blair, Mr Ahern and President Clinton "before advancing it further."

The senator would, of course, be expected to brief Mr Blair and Mr Ahern in any event, since they had initiated the review. But apart from signalling that his work is not yet complete, Senator Mitchell was already proclaiming some result.

On the basis of nine weeks of intensive discussions, he said, he was convinced that the parties were sincere and acting in good faith in seeking "the full implementation" of the Good Friday accord.

"They want devolution and decommissioning," he declared. "The problem, of course, is that there are differences among the parties on how those objectives can be achieved."

Say it quickly enough and it might not sound like much. But that problem remains exactly as it was at the outset of this review, and as it was in all the intensive periods of negotiations which preceded it, all the way back to Hillsborough before Easter and beyond.

No breakthrough but no breakdown either, was how Mr Peter Mandelson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, put it. Sinn Fein's Alex Maskey had a different take.

"All our indications are that the unionists do not want to share power. There are not enough unionists who want to share power. There are not enough unionists who are not paralysed by the prospect of the fundamental change required as a result of the Good Friday agreement . . . The frustration is still there. The crisis is still with us. The atmospherics are better. We haven't solved the problems," he declared.

The question of whether there are enough unionists is valid enough and will be put to the test if and when the Assembly is called upon to re-elect the First and Deputy First Ministers. The problem caused by Mr Mallon's resignation last July has not gone away. And for all the continuing focus on what republicans must do, Mr Trimble's ability to deliver unionism remains the flip side of that coin.

As for the rest of Mr Maskey's analysis? Even some of Mr Trimble's friends fear that his willingness to see the review prolonged might give the impression of a desperation to reach agreement at almost any price.

Outside the ranks of Sinn Fein there is little doubt that the Ulster Unionists have crossed their Rubicon, and are prepared for inclusive government. In that sense, the outstanding questions of the review are for Sinn Fein and the republican movement.

And there is continuing frustration in Irish and other circles that the republicans have so far resolutely declined to make Mr Trimble an offer he might find difficult to refuse.

There has seemingly been movement on language. But Sinn Fein continues to insist it cannot speak for, or commit, the IRA on decommissioning. And while it is now thought the IRA would be prepared to appoint an interlocutor to deal with the international commission, there is as yet no commitment to time-tabling or end result.

It would seem this is the territory into which Senator Mitchell's statement yesterday is leading. First the senator rehearsed the three previously-agreed principles which were the starting point for his review:

an inclusive executive exercising devolved powers.

decommissioning of all paramilitary arms by May 2000.

decommissioning to be carried out in a manner determined by the International Commission on Decommissioning.

Second, Senator Mitchell announced that in addition to his discussions with Mr Blair, Mr Ahern and President Clinton he "must obtain the assessment of the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning, since two of the principles agreed on June 25th relate to decommissioning."

It now seems likely that Gen John de Chastelain will be asked to assume the "pro-active" role first mooted some weeks ago, and to carry the issue directly to the republican and loyalist paramilitaries.

If the parties inside Castle Buildings cannot give what Mr Mandelson defined as the necessary "clarity and certainty of intention", this would appear the only alternative route to take.

At what some thought might be the last gasp, Senator Mitchell has moved the process forward. He also appears to have raised the stakes.