That is after Peter Robinson becomes First Minister on Thursday.

And, crucially, after Martin McGuinness is re-nominated by Sinn Fein as Deputy First Minister – meaning power-sharing continues.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to chair the exploratory discussions at Downing Street.

It will be his first venture into the tricky domain of Ulster's political process.

On the agenda will be all outstanding issues which are dogging the Stormont administration.

These will include the forward investment strategy for Northern Ireland, the economic situation, devolution of policing and justice, continuing concerns around paramilitary organisations, parades, the Irish language and education.

"And the putting in place of a process to deal with them," Mr Brown said in a statement.

Republicans provoked a crisis because of their upset that the DUP is blocking and vetoing the transfer of policing and justice powers and the Irish language act – as envisaged in the St Andrews Agreement.

They threatened not to nominate Mr McGuinness back to his post – and so topple devolved government.

British and Irish officials intervened to avert disaster.

And after three days of diplomacy, Mr Adams last night said he was "pleased" he would nominate Mr McGuinness in the Assembly today.

Both sides will now claim they got what they wanted from what some called a sham fight and others deemed as a crisis.

The DUP has got its new First Minister into his chair, without apparently conceding any ground – other than a commitment to talk with a view to resolving the issues.

It has not, so far as can be seen, given in to republican demands for a date for the transfer of law and order powers.

It can say to unionists that its claim that St Andrews was a good deal is borne out by Sinn Fein's current frustrations.

And it too will have its own issues on the talks tables, not just Gerry Adams and co.

The party is where it was at the start of the week: happy to talk about all concerns.

Sinn Fein, though, will say it has brought fresh emphasis to the need to address policing and justice and more.

And it has, for the first time, got Mr Brown's attention on the commitments London and Dublin made at St Andrews – including an Irish language act.

But observing the goings-on, Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey said unionists would now be more sceptical of devolving policing and justice.

Sinn Fein had put "self-interest and ideology" ahead of the interests of Northern Ireland, he warned.

Republicans were prepared to jeopardise the institutions to progress their strategy.

To the DUP, he said: "They have made great play out of claiming only they could ensure stable government and claiming that the Ulster Unionist Party just went from one crisis to another and was given the run-around by Sinn Fein.

"Well now they are learning what it is like to deal with these guys and they have their own crisis.

Sir Reg warned, however, that the general public would find "all of these shenanigans" hard to understand "when they are being hit by rising fuel costs and food costs and struggling to pay the mortgage".

Meanwhile, the DUP's rivals in the Traditional Unionist Voice asked: "What concessions will the DUP give to Sinn Fein/IRA?"