The deal to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland appears to be on hold tonight.
The DUP’s demand for photographic evidence of IRA decommissioning is threatening the prospects of an agreement.
Virtually all the other outstanding issues had been settled and the Taoiseach and British Prime Minister were hoping to be able to announce the deal in Belfast tomorrow.
However, it is thought Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair will give a detailed account of agreements reached during several months of negotiations between the two governments, Sinn Féin and the DUP.
Earlier, the Sinn Féin leader told a news conference in Belfast that his party accepted the political proposals for a settlement in the North.
However, Gerry Adams said that the IRA would not submit to humiliation.
Mr Adams said he and Martin McGuinness had met IRA leaders, and that they would make their own decision on the current proposals.
But he said the DUP's position on decommissioning remained a 'huge obstacle'.
Bertie Ahern had earlier said verification of decommissioning was the major stumbling block preventing total IRA disarmament and a permanent end to paramilitarism in Northern Ireland.
He told the Dáil that the DUP's insistence on photographic evidence of decommissioning was the one major difficulty to an agreement being reached in the next 24 hours.
Mr Ahern said there had been a number of meetings between a representative of the IRA and Gen John De Chastelain, the head of the International Commission on Decommissioning.
Mr Ahern said the meetings were on-going but that a number of 'technical' requirements had yet to be resolved.
He said if a deal was not struck on the restoration of the North's political institutions, the opportunity would not come round again for 'some considerable time'.
The Taoiseach told the House that if an agreement is not reached the governments intend to publish most of the papers involved in the negotiations.
He also said that if the country ever wanted to see the end of the IRA and all forms of paramilitarism in Northern Ireland, the Government had to agree to release the killers of Det Garda Jerry McCabe.
Earlier, a delegation from the Garda Representative Association met with Mr Ahern, to express their opposition to the early release of the detective's killers.
Trimble in talks with Blair
This morning, Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble said that decommissioning must occur completely and in a way that creates public confidence if a settlement was to be achieved to restore devolved government in the North.
He was speaking following talks with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, at Downing Street this morning.
Mr Trimble refused to say whether he believed photos of decommissioning were essential, but said a report of the international decommissioning body by itself would not create sufficient confidence.
