**Talks aimed at saving the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland resume on Monday with both sides optimistic.**Sinn Fein and the DUP have spent the last week deadlocked over transferring policing and judicial powers from Westminster to the Stormont Assembly.
Talks made progress although Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward warned there was still “work to be done”.
Meanwhile, DUP MP Gregory Campbell has said the public would need to be consulted before a deal was ratified.
Parties locked
Sinn Fein and the DUP have been arguing for months over the timing and circumstances of the transfer of policing and justice powers to Belfast.
Sinn Fein wants the powers transferred immediately, while the DUP has said that can only happen when there is “community confidence” among unionists.
The largest unionist party said that confidence could be built through a deal on how to resolve the parading issue.
However, republicans have maintained that devolution should not depend on agreement on parading.
The British and Irish prime ministers chaired talks between Northern Ireland’s political parties for three days.
On Wednesday, Gordon Brown and Brian Cowen said that if there was no deal within 48 hours they would publish their own proposals but that deadline was allowed to pass with the parties still locked in discussions.
‘Bones of deal’
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said the talks, being held at Hillsborough Castle, outside Belfast, had made “considerable progress”.
DUP Assembly member Sammy Wilson agreed that the talks had taken a step forward and said that “when a deal is finalised the public will get a chance to debate it”.
Party colleague Mr Campbell, when asked whether he was talking about a referendum, said: "We have not looked at every possible avenue of consulting people but there are a number of ways.
“People need to be consulted, they need to see the bones of the deal and the detail of it, and then give a response that allows us to say whether we proceed or don’t.”
The talks represent the longest period of sustained negotiations since the peace process began in the 1990s.