PRO-agreement parties in the North will meet more often to sort out problems in the peace process.
Dr John Reid, the Northern Secretary, said difficulties would be best settled locally and not in London or Dublin. The more regularly the parties met to "discuss openly and honestly their own problems, the better chance we have of success", he said.
He was speaking alongside the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, after more than four hours of talks with the SDLP, Sinn Féin, Ulster Unionists, Alliance, Progressive Unionists and Women's Coalition.
The talks were held under the banner of the Implementation Group, a structure agreed last year at talks at Weston Park designed to boost application of the Belfast Agreement.
The discussions took place against a backdrop of falling unionist confidence in the agreement and increasing pressure on Dr Reid to declare the IRA ceasefire bogus following the Castlereagh break-in, Colombia, street violence in Belfast and other controversies.
Mr Cowen said: "It is very much in the interests of everybody in the pro-agreement side that we try and find common solutions to problems that are there as we try to implement the agreement, so that people will see the benefits of supporting those parties whomsoever they wish to support."
Some party leaders present expressed annoyance at the non-appearance of the unionist leader, Mr David Trimble. He is understood to have been at a meeting in London.
Neither Mr Cowen nor Dr Reid criticised Mr Trimble, the Northern Secretary preferring to praise the contribution to the meeting made by Mr Dermot Nesbitt, the Environment Minister, who was acting on his leader's behalf.
However, Sinn Féin's Mr Gerry Kelly told The Irish Times: "Today was a meeting which should have involved the leaders. It was unfortunate that David Trimble did not come and I notice that no excuse was made for him not coming, so it seemed to be very deliberate."
The SDLP, Mr Mark Durkan, leader did not criticise Mr Trimble, but it is understood he, too, was dismayed by his decision not to attend and by his view of yesterday's meeting as some sort of B-list gathering.
"The fact is we need the implementation group to meet with a degree of frequency in a range of issues and format," he said.