Sinn Féin last night insisted there was as yet "no deal done" with the British government on the issue of paramilitary fugitives or on-the-runs (OTRs).
And Downing Street has confirmed that the issue will probably not now be resolved by the end of this month, as originally envisaged by the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, during last July's Weston Park negotiations. Dismissing a report in the Times of London that 30 IRA fugitives would be allowed to return to Britain without fear of going to jail under the terms of a deal concluded by Mr Blair and Mr Gerry Adams on Monday, a Sinn Féin spokesman again said "only a very small proportion" of Monday's Downing Street meeting had been devoted to the question of OTRs.
While Mr Blair accepted the anomalous position of between 30 and 40 people against whom there were outstanding warrants - and who would otherwise have benefited under the early-release scheme established by the Belfast Agreement - the Sinn Féin spokesman said the British government had not yet identified or agreed a process by which the issue would be resolved.
Specifically the spokesman insisted Mr Adams had not discussed any formula with Mr Blair which would entail any of the OTRs - for example, persons who had jumped bail or fled extradition proceedings - submitting themselves to stand trial before the courts in Northern Ireland before winning early release.
It is believed this is the approach favoured by the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, and by the Liberal Democrats.
The thinking would be that only persons who have submitted themselves to due process of law could be released "on licence" under the terms of the early-release scheme and on the same basis as those prisoners already freed.
The Blair government has been faced with the possibility that proposals for a more general "amnesty" - designed to "draw a line under 30 years of the Troubles in Northern Ireland", which might extend also to members of the security forces - could be defeated by combined Conservative, Unionist and Liberal Democrat opposition in the House of Lords.
However, Mr Adams told The Irish Times on Monday that his party was not seeking a general amnesty and that the numbers on whose behalf he was making representations was in fact "very small".
Whitehall sources said they would "have to compare figures", having previously indicated that the numbers involved ran into "triple figures", probably closer to 100 than to 200.