The Northern Secretary, John Reid, is to restore the power sharing government in the North at midnight. This follows a 24-hour suspension and clears the way for another six-week period of negotiations on the arms decommissioning issue.
Mr Reid said that he hoped paramilitary groups would take advantage of the time to deal once and for all with the arms question.
However, the Stormont Assembly is facing into another crisis after Ulster Unionist Leader David Trimble said that he would attempt to have the Sinn Féin ministers in the Executive expelled because of the failure of the IRA to decommission.
Mr Trimble said that his party was to table a motion on Monday with the aim of excluding Sinn Féin ministers from the Assembly. If that motion failed to gain the necessary cross community support in the assembly, Mr Trimble said that the Ulster Unionist ministers would then withdraw from government or resign their seats.
Mr Trimble said that the Ulster Unionist action was designed to try and force the British government to take the necessary steps to force the IRA into decommissioning their weapons.
Republicans have been incensed by the move. Sinn Féin Assembly member Alex Maskey said that it was disgraceful and evidence that Mr Trimble was not interested in sharing power with Nationalists.
Meanwhile, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, expressed disappointment at the suspension. Minister Cowen said: "It is disappointing that we should once again find ourselves in this situation.
"However, I understand that the Secretary of State has taken this difficult decision to provide us with extra time in which to build on the progress made in recent weeks."
The suspension was discussed at a meeting in Belfast today of Ulster Unionist MPs, Assembly members and party officers. The latest crisis was sparked when Mr Trimble resigned on 1 July as head of the Northern Ireland Assembly over the lack of disarmament by the IRA.
Mr Reid said in a statement that such advances and the terror attacks in the US last week had brought about a changed climate. "I am satisfied that the time bought over the last six weeks has come to some significant good over policing and that illustrates that given time and political will, we can overcome the difficulties that face us."
