Northern Ireland's parties could be given another six weeks to resolve their dispute over IRA arms and policing in the latest Irish and British government move to rescue the Belfast Agreement, it was claimed tonight.
Sources in both governments signalled they were leaning towards another one-day suspension of the North's political institutions in a bid to buy more time for unionists and nationalists to resolve their differences.
Under a constitutional technicality, a one-day suspension would trigger a new six-week period for the parties to concentrate on finding a solution to their dispute over IRA decommissioning and support for the new policing structures.
With the North's parties deadlocked on the issues of arms and policing, it is believed any decision to suspend the institutions will be made on the margins of a terrorism summit in Brussels on Friday attended by EU leaders.
"At this stage there are a lot of negotiations taking place in the background and people accept the situation can change," a British government source said.
"At the moment it is looking like there will be suspension, with the one-day suspension looking the most likely of the two options."
The pace of policing reform in Northern Ireland will be largely determined tomorrow when unionists decide whether to nominate members to the new Policing Board which will oversee the reformed RUC.
Unionists were tonight keeping their cards close to their chests but dialogue was continuing until the last minute as they tried to wring concessions from the British government. Midnight tomorrow is the deadline set by the British government for parties to nominate members to the Policing Board.
Ten political nominees are due to be made, but so far only the nationalist SDLP have said they will join.
The Ulster Unionists and nationalist SDLP can nominate three party members each and the Democratic Unionists and Sinn Féin two each.
A further nine non-political independents will also be appointed to the board and the final interviews of potential candidates took place today. Mr Trimble's Ulster Unionists and the Rev Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionists have held a series of meetings with the British government in a bid to gain changes in the reform package before deciding their position.
The Taoiseach Mr Ahern and the British prime minister Mr Tony Blair met in Downing Street early in the day to discuss the peace process and policing was high on the agenda.
A close aide of Mr Trimble said tonight: "The position is, we were in contact with Downing Street today and we plan to have further discussions with the Secretary of State tomorrow in advance of the deadline."
He added: "We won't declare our hand until we finalise discussions. I expect some sort of announcement in connection with the party decision tomorrow evening, but at this stage no one is indicating which direction we are likely to decide."
Ian Paisley jnr, justice spokesman for the DUP, held out little hope for his party making nominations on time.
He said their preferred position was that they did not nominate until they received from Ulster Secretary Dr John Reid the changes they were demanding.
"We need to squeeze these changes out of (British) Government, it will be much more difficult to get them if we nominate first."
Unionists had to hold their nerve, he said.
"This is the Secretary of State's deadline, not ours. If unionists don't nominate to the Board, the Secretary of State can't really go on without us."
In theory he could. A scheme is already in place to fill up the gaps left by Sinn Féin if, as expected, the party continues to refuse to sign up.
In its absence the seats will be divided between the two unionist parties, assuming they have taken their seats.