Well-placed sources at Stormont have insisted that the British side is not "hung up" on terms such as disbandment of the IRA or the standing down of its organisation.
One source said: "The bottom line is activity". The source pointed out that Mr Tony Blair's demand in his speech in Belfast last October related more to paramilitary actions than to their existence. The Irish Times was told that the days of "sequencing", "choreography" and "gestures" were over. Only an end to paramilitary activity would revive the political process.
A source in Dublin suggested that the main parties to any deal were unwilling at this early stage to show their hand, but they were keen to show that they were still in the business of trying for a deal.
The Implementation Group of pro-agreement parties meets at Stormont today, but unionist delegations are not expected to attend. Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Alliance and the Women's Coalition will meet a Stormont junior minister, Mr Des Browne, and the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt.
Meanwhile, a number of Northern Ireland politicians travel to Barcelona today to address a high-profile international conference. The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, and the deputy leader of the SDLP, Ms Bríd Rodgers, will be joined in the Spanish city by academics from the North. They will be there to discuss the progress made in the North in recent years at the "Peace Process in Northern Ireland: Dealing with Violence through Dialogue" conference.
Ms Rodgers is expected to address a number of issues during her speech, including her view that the true value of the Belfast Agreement has not been recognised. She will argue that its significance as the democratic common-denominator between nationalists and unionists is not fully appreciated.
Ms Rodgers is also expected to address claims from anti-agreement unionists that the agreement can be renegotiated and she will emphasise that it is not up for sale or for renegotiation. She is expected to say that instead of suspending contact with the international decommissioning body, loyalist paramilitary groups should call off their campaign of intimidation and assassination of Catholics.
The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, has said that the British government must give a commitment that Assembly elections will go ahead on May 1st. He claimed that Mr Trimble was undermining the Belfast Agreement.
- (additional reporting: PA)