The British and Irish governments will attempt to end the political deadlock in Northern Ireland next month with intensive new talks in Scotland.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Tony Blair will head up the negotiations involving all sides in advance of the November 24th deadline which has been set to reach a settlement.
It is understood the talks will take place at a location in Scotland during the second week in October.
Secretary of State Peter Hain confirmed today would take place somewhere in Scotland in a bid to get the power-sharing institutions in Belfast up and running again.
This will be the third time the parties have met for intensive discussions in Britain since the signing of the Belfast Agreement in April 1998. Both previous attempts ended in failure.
The first session was at Weston Park in the Midlands in July 2001. The then Secretary of State John Reid suspended the Northern Ireland Assembly in October the following year amid allegations of an IRA spy ring operating inside Stormont.
The parties met again at Leeds Castle near Maidstone, Kent, in September 2004 but were still unable to agree. The talks in Scotland are likely to begin sometime around the week beginning October 9th, just days after the International Monitoring Commission — the body set up by the two governments to monitor the IRA and loyalist paramilitary ceasefires — delivers its latest assessment.
Mr Hain, however, insisted today that the governments will not be going back on the November 24 deadline for devolution.
Salaries and other allowances for elected representatives would stop if an agreement was not reached, he warned. At Stormont Castle, Mr Hain said: "The onus is absolutely on the parties to make it work and make that prize their own.
"Only the parties can travel the distance and complete the journey — it is down to them."
He added that the British government had done all it could to build confidence and said the relatively peaceful marching season had helped lay the groundwork for a successful round of negotiations.
Mr Hain confirmed: "Critical negotiations will take place outside of Northern Ireland. We need to concentrate minds. "I think it's much better to get away from the day-to-day issues and daily pressures that face all politicians.