SIGNIFICANT difficulties in breaking the deadlock in arms de commissioning appear to remain unresolved following a meeting between the international body, led by former US senator, Mr George Mitchell, and the Sinn Fein leadership.
A heavy schedule of meetings between the Mitchell led group, and interested parties in the coming days means that Thursday's deadline for presenting the report to the two governments will not be met, and the presentation may not now take place until the weekend.
Following a three hour meeting between the international body and Sinn Fein at Dublin Castle last night, Mr Mitchell, the commission chairman, said that this was "a critical time in the history, of this island, especially for the people of Northern Ireland".
But in the wake of the discussions the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, warned that all the commission's efforts would come to naught if the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, did not drop the demand for decommissioning prior to all party talks.
Pledging that the international body would do its utmost to assist the process, Mr Mitchell said that "by circumstances not within our individual control, we have been brought together in a way that gives us an opportunity to do something that could contribute to a truly historical development".
The international body had no other motive other than to do its best to "make it possible for a just and lasting reconciliation to occur" in Northern Ireland. Each one was devoting all his energies, "mental, physical and spiritual", to achieving that end. It intended to do the best it could to make a constructive contribution to the peace process.
The body had reached no conclusions but it had formed views and gained impressions. However, the members had not had the opportunity yet to sit down and distill what would represent their best judgment on the issue. The final report would be a culmination of the process of meetings and ringing to fruition all the information we have absorbed".
Nobody was denying the difficulties involved in their task, he said, adding that "we would not be here but for the fact that, over a period of a year and a halt, the governments could not reach agreement on the issue". However, nobody should be "deterred by difficulty".
After last night's lengthy meeting with Sinn Fein, both sides said, no further discussions were scheduled, but there may be more consultations by telephone.
Mr Adams again firmly ruled" out any preconditions for all party talks. He said he did not think Mr Mitchell expected any of the parties to "accept a report that has not been published". Meanwhile, elections to an assembly should not be a precondition or forerunner to negotiations.
"We will judge the outcome in good faith. We are not putting down preconditions. We are spending an awful lot of time and have exhausted ourselves, along with a lot of other people, in trying to remove those preconditions", Mr Adams added.
Mr Mitchell confirmed that the international body will meet the chief of staff of the Defence Forces and his counterpart in Northern Ireland and will also conduct discussions with the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, and other officials, as well as unionist representatives.