Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Martin McGuinness, has said he has "no problem" signing up to a pledge of office with DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley before November 24th, providing it does not interfere with the party's internal consultation on the St Andrews Agreement.
A meeting between the DUP leader and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams last Tuesday did not take place when Dr Paisley insisted that Mr McGuinness should take the pledge of office giving support to policing and the courts before November 24th.
Dr Paisley claimed he had been assured by British prime minister Tony Blair that the pledge would be taken before November 24th.
In an interview with BBC's Inside Politics, Mr McGuinness said whether he takes the pledge before November 24th "will depend on what will be in that pledge. If there is anything in that pledge which undermines the ongoing consultation which we are involved in vis-a-vis the Scotland St Andrews Agreement, then Sinn Féin won't be going down that road."
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern sounded a note of optimism.
Speaking on Radio Ulster, he agreed with presenter Mark Devenport's suggestion of "a pledge to take a pledge".
A "transitional" pledge was incorporated in the 1998 Belfast Agreement when Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble and SDLP deputy leader Séamus Mallon were first minister and deputy first minister.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan discussed the St Andrews Agreement with party members at an extended executive meeting in Belfast yesterday.
He said the St Andrews deal "lets the DUP accept the [ Belfast] Agreement's political institutions and Sinn Féin accept the policing institutions".
Mr Adams is to lead a Sinn Féin delegation for talks with Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames and a senior church delegation at Stormont today.