But some progress has been made on the setting up of north-south cross border bodies which must be in place before the assembly can take up its powers next February.

On the issue of government departments all the other parties except the Ulster Unionists favour ten ministries while the UUP want seven.

But the Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon remains optimistic. "We hope to get a resolution of that next week," he said.

"It was a good day's work, but time will tell how profitable it will be. I am of the opinion that we might have moved forward to some degree."

'Deadline missed'

Earlier, Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam had stressed that "everybody will live with" the latest missed deadline in the Ulster peace process.

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: "Decommissioning 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.

"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.

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."

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.