After meeting Irish government ministers in Dublin, she said that the current difficulties - brought about by differences over paramilitary arms decommissioning - would be overcome.

Dr Mowlam met Irish Foreign Minister David Andrews and his deputy Liz O'Donnell as Northern Ireland's political leaders gathered in Belfast to examine ways of overcoming the present deadlock.

Dr Mowlam: "No-one said it would be easy"

The impasse now looks certain to mean Saturday's target date for the moves towards the formation of cross-border bodies as part of the Good Friday agreement will be missed.

Coming out of the talks, Dr Mowlam said: "The decommission and (appointment of) the executive are still on the table. We want to do everything we can to move them forward, but I doubt we will make the October 31 deadline.

"Deadlines are helpful, deadlines focus people, but if you miss it by a couple of days after the progress that has been made - the lives that have been saved, with hopes for the future - everybody will live with it."

The secretary of state added: "It would be too negative to say we are still not making progress. The parties are meeting together, making decisions. I think that is an important step.

"No-one said after the Good Friday agreement that its implementation would be easy. The implementation will be tough - but I have no doubt that we will get there.

'It will take time'

"There is not one party leader in Belfast today that does not want to make progress. It will take time and patience. It will not make headlines, but I believe it is the hard work that is going on that will make the difference."

Mr Andrews also said progress had been made under the terms of the agreement "that was not necessarily in the public domain".

He maintained: "There have been obstacles in the past and will be in the future, and we will solve this problem."

Meanwhile talks were under way at Stormont in Belfast as political leaders tried to find a way to break the stalemate over decommissioning before Saturday's deadline.

Before entering the parliament building, Sinn Fein chairman Mitchel McLaughlin called for the immediate appointment of a cabinet-style executive in which his party would hold two of a possible 12 seats.

"If we don't get agreement today then we should ... if necessary, sleep here until we get agreement to move on to the next phase," he said.

Gerry Adams says Mr Trimble is putting obstacles in the way of peace

But First Minister David Trimble says the IRA must begin decommissioning its weapons before he will sit down with Sinn Fein in the new executive.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said that the "deadline will not be reached in the precise manner laid down in the agreement".

He told a joint meeting of business people from Belfast and Dublin: "This may give rise to some anxiety on your part and more widely among people, north and south."

"It would certainly have been desirable that the target dates were respected."

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams has called for the all-party talks at Stormont to stay in permanent session until the issue is resolved.

Mr Adams said: "The work to be done is necessary work and in many ways routine work that should have already been done."

Mowlam considers accepting LVF ceasefire

Dr Mowlam meanwhile confirmed that she is reviewing the ceasefire by the hardline Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) following a fresh security assessment.

The government has yet to accept the group's ceasefire as genuine.

Under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement, LVF prisoners would be entitled to early release if the ceasefire is accepted.