Sinn Féin is still holding out the possibility of a deal with Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, despite the Democratic Unionist Party's victory in last week's Assembly elections.
This emerged yesterday as Mr Trimble made light of the forthcoming review of the Belfast Agreement, telling the Secretary of State, Mr Paul Murphy, he should instead "focus on the failure of republicans to deliver peace completely".
During Northern Ireland Questions in the Commons, Mr Trimble demanded of Mr Murphy: "Should you not focus on that, rather than rearrange the details through some review which is only looking at the mechanics of the institutions and the operation of them?"
Mr Murphy agreed these were important issues, saying the British government was obliged to hold the review while observing that some 70 per cent of members elected to the new Assembly were from pro-agreement parties.
Mr Trimble's intervention reinforced his message to the government to test the DUP's proposed "alternative" agreement speedily and otherwise resume the pre-election bid for paramilitary and government "acts of completion" to enable the restoration of the power-sharing executive.
At the same time, a senior Sinn Féin source told The Irish Times the party was "not into another 18 months" of talks process, saying: "In the short term, it's obviously necessary to give the DUP some space, but if they are not going to engage then we should move ahead without them."
However, UUP and Sinn Féin sources accept this would only be possible either by triggering the mechanism for electing first and deputy first ministers and appointing an executive and, failing that, holding another election or, alternatively, by changing the Assembly's cross-community voting rules. The prevailing view in Whitehall is that a second election would almost certainly replicate last week's result.
However, the question of voting rules and procedures affecting fairness and the efficient working of the Assembly can be considered during the scheduled review - due to begin in January - under the terms of the original 1998 agreement.
The Alliance Party is pressing for a change on the basis that the existing arrangements - requiring members to designate themselves unionist or nationalist - disenfranchise its members who regard themselves as neither.
In the Commons, Mr Séamus Mallon asked Mr Murphy what indications he had received from Dublin as to "when we might expect these \ poachers to become gamekeepers?"
As the Department of Foreign Affairs denied any talks had taken place with the DUP, Mr Nigel Dodds said: "We will talk to the Government of the Republic of Ireland on matters of mutual concern." Mr Dodds warned Mr Murphy to "stop isolating, marginalising and excluding the real representatives of unionism".