The Northern Secretary has suggested that agreement could be reached in the Stormont negotiations by Christmas if there was enough determination among the North's parties. Responding yesterday to Dr Mo Mowlam's comments, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said that while he thought this was "a little bit optimistic", he agreed with the message she was giving. "If there is trust and confidence between the parties at the talks we can really make progress in the future," he said.
A deadline of next May has been set for reaching a settlement, but Dr Mowlam was optimistic that agreement could be reached earlier. "It is now in many senses in the hands of the parties," she said on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost programme. "It is the parties who can make this work.
"We could do it by Christmas if people really wanted to do it, if there was determination and we could build that trust and confidence quick enough, which is the problem - getting people to trust each other and talk."
Dr Mowlam said she would not end the talks if progress was slower and the participants were close to agreement when the May deadline expired. However, she stressed that the deadline added momentum to the negotiations.
She praised the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, for entering negotiations: "To do what he did, without having the other two Unionist parties, took guts."
She appealed to the DUP and to Mr Bob McCartney's UK Unionist Party to rejoin the process. The other parties will meet at Stormont Castle today to elect a business committee as part of the preparations for the first full round of substantive negotiations which are expected to begin either next week or the week after.
Admitting that she had had an unsuccessful meeting with the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, last Friday, Dr Mowlam said that she still hoped that he would change his mind.
Initially it had been hoped that substantive talks on the North's future could begin the following week, but UUP sources said that behind-the-scenes negotiations between their party and the SDLP, to agree an agenda, could take slightly longer.
Mr Trimble is hoping to meet the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, this week in an attempt to establish common ground for the talks.