The British and Irish governments are now pushing for publication within days of the exact quantities of IRA weapons and explosives put beyond use yesterday, in an effort to secure a deal to end the IRA campaign and secure the North's political institutions.
The Taoiseach and British Prime Minister plan to make a determined attempt to persuade the IRA to provide further detail on its third act of decommissioning as the Belfast Agreement faced an unexpected crisis.
Mr Ahern and Mr Tony Blair returned to Dublin and London last night with politics still deadlocked in the North after a carefully choreographed deal that appeared on the brink of a successful conclusion was stalled by what the two leaders agreed was lack of clarity on IRA decommissioning.
Mr Blair confirmed that despite this political crisis, the November 26th Assembly elections would proceed. Both the Taoiseach and Mr Blair are conscious, however, that without resolution of this crisis, anti-agreement unionists are likely to be the majority unionist grouping after the election. This could threaten the entire agreement.
Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble yesterday refused to endorse the deal negotiated over recent weeks until greater detail of the amount of weapons and explosives destroyed was provided by the IRA. The governments, in consultation with Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Trimble, will begin working today to bring about the lifting of the confidentiality agreement imposed by the IRA on the decommissioning body chairman, Gen John de Chastelain.
Both Irish Government and Ulster Unionist sources said last night they had warned that lack of clarity on decommissioning could be a problem. However both appear to have gambled that the IRA would allow Gen de Chastelain to provide sufficient detail on what was decommissioned yesterday.
Before leaving Hillsborough last night, Mr Ahern and Mr Blair indicated that were an inventory released of what was decommissioned by the IRA, the crisis would be resolved. They expressed extreme frustration last night at the deadlock after several fruitless hours of talks at Hillsborough in an attempt to resolve the issue.
Mr Blair - who with Mr Ahern has been given more details of the decommissioning act - asserted that yesterday's act of decommissioning was indeed of major significance: "If people knew the information we have been told then yes, they would be satisfied," he said.
Gen de Chastelain confirmed yesterday that he had witnessed the putting beyond use of "light, medium and heavy ordnance" including explosives, automatic weapons and other material. However he declined to say how much was involved or to estimate what proportion of the IRA's arsenal had now been dealt with, saying the IRA had exercised its right to tell him not to do so.
The crisis brought about by the weapons issue overshadowed the announcement earlier of a substantial change of position by the IRA, interpreted widely as a statement that its war is over. Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams - in a speech which the IRA said "accurately reflects our position" - said the implementation by the two governments and the parties of their commitments under the agreement would allow republicans and unionists to pursue their objectives peacefully, "thus providing full and final closure of the conflict". He also said that Sinn Féin's position was one of pursuing its goals by "exclusively democratic and peaceful means" and that "we are opposed to any use or threat of force for any political purpose".
Indicating Ulster Unionist approval of this formulation, Mr Trimble pointed to the fact that Mr Adams' speech was endorsed by the IRA and said: "The speech was good. There were good things in it." This crisis has the potential to undermine Mr Trimble's position as UUP leader. His chief internal opponent, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, last night said this debacle had proved extremely damaging and embarrassing for Mr Trimble.
The election announcement came at 7 a.m. yesterday, at the start of the sequence of events which was confidently expected to confirm a deal. However this sequence of events was dramatically derailed late yesterday afternoon when Mr David Trimble said that Gen de Chastelain's account of the IRA act of decommissioning did not constitute the "clear, transparent report" that Ulster Unionists had wanted.
