![[ image: width=150]](/olmedia/70000/images/_73298_mowlam2.jpg)
![image: [ Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern are near to an agreement ]](/olmedia/70000/images/_73298_Blair_and_Ahern_300.jpg)
Tony Blair, and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern, met late into the night on Thursday and Mr Ahern left the Downing Street meeting telling the BBC some progress had been made.
The two leaders are taking time out on Friday from the ASEM II talks with Asian politicians to have further discussions. Government officials have spent the day negotiating the fine details of issues like cross-border links and a Northern Ireland assembly.
But the agreement between the British and Irish governments may not come in time for the talks chairman, former US Senator George Mitchell, to produce a so-called "synthesis" paper - his view of what an overall settlement might look like - before the weekend.
However the officials aim to have an agreed set of proposals to be presented to the Stormont peace talks in time for the April 9 deadline for agreement.
Crisis averted
Relations between the British and Irish governments appeared to be strained early this week when Mr Ahern suggested that the peace process could break down if Britain insisted on downgrading cross-border bodies to mere "ad hoc chat shows", which he said would be unacceptable to the Republic.
But on Thursday Mr Blair told colleagues at a Cabinet meeting that he was still "cautiously, stubbornly optimistic" about the prospects for a breakthrough in the talks.
His confidence has been echoed by Mo Mowlam, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, and Gerry Adams the Sinn Fein leader.
Dr Mowlam said she believed the differences between the parties were narrowing and could be settled within the next six days. "We are still negotiating the detail, everybody is now engaging in the real crunch issues," she said.
"Yes, there are still differences, but the areas where there were differences is declining and it's next week that counts, not now."
The Northern Ireland Secretary said she believed the negotiations would go "right to the edge" but insisted that Thursday's deadline could not be extended.
"There are areas of differences but areas I think can settled within the next six days. No-one will get 100% of what they want, but they will get something they can live with."
But Mr Adams said the onus was now on Prime Minister Tony Blair to "convert an opportunity for peace into reality."
He also called for an end to violence from all sides, after Irish police on Thursday foiled an apparent attempt to derail the process altogether when they found a 1,000lb car bomb bound for Britain at a ferry port near Dublin.
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