The DUP has rejected any early deadline for completion of the current Northern Ireland talks process and again stipulated tough terms for Sinn Féin's eventual readmission to a power-sharing government at Stormont.
Addressing a first-ever DUP event on the Conservative Party conference fringe in Bournemouth, the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, said his party had the electoral mandate "to seek a fair deal for all the people of Northern Ireland", adding that it would "continue relentlessly until it is accomplished".
However, Mr Robinson also appeared to dampen expectations of an early breakthrough.
"That goal can be achieved with the hard work and genuine efforts of all those involved," he said. "Some may have wanted another quick fix from 'hot-house' negotiations, but the prize on offer is much too great to waste on another deadline deal."
At the same time, Mr Robinson's colleague, North Belfast MP Mr Nigel Dodds, told the audience that despite Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair's "vague" and "uplifting" assessment of republican intentions, neither government or the parties yet had "any text" providing the detail of proposed IRA "acts of completion".
However, there was also a warning on the conference fringe last night from the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, that the DUP risked "losing the opportunity" to pin down the precise details of the republican proposals put to both governments at the recent Leeds Castle talks.
Mr Trimble said the British government needed "to bring matters to a head" in the ongoing negotiations about the restoration of the Stormont Assembly. After the original sense of urgency injected into the Leeds Castle talks by Mr Blair, the Ulster Unionist leader said there was now "a sense of things slipping away".
And "while the DUP might be congratulating themselves on their conduct of the negotiation with London and Dublin", Mr Trimble maintained, "the DUP's failure to engage (with republicans) is part of the reason why things are slipping away".
Mr Trimble acknowledged that the terms of any proposed IRA acts of completion remained unclear and again said this was the single largest obstacle to the restoration of power-sharing.