Sources close to the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, last night described as "somewhat premature" suggestions that the deadline for the creation of the Northern Ireland executive might be further extended, in the absence of a speedy resolution of the decommissioning impasse.
Usually reliable sources across a range of parties were privately advancing this option, even as the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Mr Blair embarked on their first round of meetings with the major Northern Ireland parties at Hillsborough Castle.
Mr David Trimble emerged last night from a meeting with Mr Blair at Hillsborough Castle insisting that the IRA statement confirming it had located the bodies of a number of the so-called "disappeared" did not affect the central issue of the week - decommissioning. The two prime ministers, he said, had brought no new "magic formula" into play.
Mr Trimble was speaking ahead of a second scheduled meeting with both Mr Blair and Mr Ahern, who will travel to Stormont this morning for a day-long session of make-or-break talks. The suggested further delay was strongly opposed by one leading member of the SDLP, who said it would result in a loss of vital "urgency and momentum". However it appeared to reflect an underlying sense that Easter week was not the ideal one in which to seek IRA movement on decommissioning and that the escalating crisis in Kosovo was the natural preoccupation of Mr Blair, as well as President Clinton.
British sources, however, insisted this did not reflect the prime minister's own disposition upon arrival at Hillsborough.
An unwillingness to bring the process to a shattering halt was also detectable among some leading players at Stormont, despite an apparent across-the-board failure yet to detect the basis of a possible compromise.
In an atmosphere of endless if circular speculation, senior Ulster Unionists dismissed suggestions that Mr Trimble might be prepared to agree the creation of the executive in "shadow" form, in an attempt to buy further time in which to seek a decommissioning resolution. While there was no basis for believing that Mr Trimble might be prepared to take that course, it was clear that it would be strongly opposed by at least two likely Ulster Unionist ministers in the putative executive.
The long-established UUP view is that the public in Northern Ireland, and unionists in particular, would see no real distinction between the executive in "shadow" and substantive form. The belief appears to be, moreover, that shadow ministers would incrementally and fairly quickly be involved in decision-making by both governments while decommissioning remained unresolved.
Senior UUP sources also dismissed the idea that Mr Trimble would agree the creation of the executive in return for a commitment to some IRA decommissioning further down the line. The sources said they were perfectly happy if others needed more time, but that a decision to trigger the d'Hondt formula for the allocation of ministerial posts should be delayed accordingly.
In separate talks with the SDLP yesterday, it is understood the Progressive Unionist Party suggested a compromise built around the immediate establishment of the executive in return for a commitment from the SDLP and both governments that Sinn Fein would be excluded from office if decommissioning had not been satisfactorily dealt with by May 2000.
The UUP appears unlikely to settle for that, given Mr Seamus Mallon's insistence that it should abandon its "absolutist position" in return for a clear agreement defining that decommissioning will happen, the means by which it would be processed, and that it would be completed by May 2000 as indicated in the Belfast Agreement.