The British and Irish governments will try to inject some momentum into the multi-party talks when they reconvene in London this morning with fresh proposals on future North-South links as part of an overall political settlement on Northern Ireland.
The two governments hope the outline proposals - still to be agreed - will refocus the talks process after yesterday's dramatic exclusion of the Ulster Democratic Party.
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, bowed to the inevitable need to exclude the UDP, at least for a period, following a lengthy plenary session at Lancaster House.
The importance of the Mitchell principles of democracy and nonviolence were stressed by Dr Mowlam and Mr Andrews. In the end it was only the Progressive Unionist Party, Labour and the Women's Coalition who supported the UDP's continuation in the talks following confirmation that the UFF had been involved in a number of sectarian murders.
Mr Andrews insisted there were "no prospects whatsoever of the process collapsing" and said he would welcome the prospect of the UDP's re-entry to the talks "in due course" provided, as Dr Mowlam said, there was evidence of a sustained UFF ceasefire supported by evidence on the ground and "by word and deed".
SDLP sources last night insisted the period of the UDP's suspension could "not be less" than the six-week period originally stipulated by the British government to test the veracity of the IRA's ceasefire. But the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the UDP's departure would do nothing to lift the fears of Northern nationalists. "The crisis has not been defused," he declared.
And Sinn Fein sources last night signalled that the next potential crisis in the process could result from the eagerly-awaited paper on future North-South links which officials from both governments appear confident will be agreed later this morning.
Sinn Fein has been pressing for a lengthy, and fairly definitive, paper outlining the all-Ireland dimension to any proposed settlement. But it seems clear that the Irish Government will be obliged to settle for a less "prescriptive" text than it has been seeking over the past week of negotiation. It is understood the emerging text marries the Irish desire for likely models for North-South relations with the original British plan for a list of options - and comprises four fairly substantial sections of text with some 16 questions to be addressed. Irish sources last night would say only that it would reaffirm the commitments of the two governments to the Joint Framework Documents "in some form or other". However, the Ulster Unionists have been resisting language which they regard as a departure from the Propositions for Heads of Agreement published two weeks ago.
Mr Gary McMichael warned last night that his party's exclusion would "fuel instability" in Northern Ireland but pledged to do all he could to help maintain the loyalist ceasefire of 1994. Mrs Monica McWilliams, for the Women's Coalition, described the UDP's departure as "a disaster". The talks chairman, Sen George Mitchell, meanwhile, said he believed the May deadline for a settlement could be reached.
Analysis and London talks reports: pages 6 and 7; Editorial comment: page 17