Latest: 'Short window of opportunity' for powersharing in North, says Brokenshire

As the deadline to form a new Stormont administration passed at 4pm on Monday, following last month's snap elections, Mr Brokenshire said there remains "an overwhelming desire" for strong and stable devolved government.

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire says there is an overwhelming desire for strong and stable devolved government pic.twitter.com/KaRkoiMYpv

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"We now have a short window of opportunity to resolve outstanding issues and for an executive to be formed," he said at a press conference outside Stormont House.

"Everyone owes it to the people of Northern Ireland to grasp that and provide the political leadership and stability that they want."

Mr Brokenshire said he would make a full statement in the House of Commons tomorrow setting out a way forward for the North.

Outlining a time-frame for cross-party talks, he said: "On timing, there are a short few weeks in order to resolve matters.

"The reason I say that is because of the stark issue in relation to public services here in Northern Ireland and the lack of a budget having been set, and therefore it is the impact on public services on having an extended period that is very much at the forefront of my mind in terms of the responsibilities that we have as the UK Government to provide that assurance to the public here."

Mr Brokenshire added: "Ultimately, this will be resolved by the parties themselves getting around the table to bridge the gaps that are there in respect of the differences we known still exist."

Declining to say whether an independent intermediary could be appointed to broker crisis talks, he would only say the UK Government would be playing a key role.

Update 2.33pm: Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists have blamed each other for the breakdown of powersharing talks that has pushed Stormont's beleaguered devolved institutions further into crisis.

A scheduled sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly to nominate new leading ministers was cancelled today after the negotiations to form a new coalition executive collapsed last night.

It is all but inevitable that today's 4pm deadline for establishing an executive will pass without agreement, opening the possibility of yet another set-piece negotiation process; a further snap election; or even the re-imposition of direct rule from Westminster.

DUP leader Arlene Foster claimed Sinn Fein's "inflexible" approach to negotiations was to blame.

Sinn Féin leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill offered a very different view on culpability.

She claimed the DUP had failed to live up to previous agreements and were standing in the way of progressive policies.

Sinn Fein leader Michelle O'Neill at Stormont on the collapse of power-sharing pic.twitter.com/hGOxh6rLbn

— Belfast News Letter (@News_Letter) March 27, 2017

"We are standing firm - previous agreements need to be implemented," she said.

"We came at the negotiations with the right attitude, wanting to make the institutions work, wanting to deliver for all citizens.

"Unfortunately, the DUP maintained their position in relation to blocking equality, delivery of equality for citizens - that was the problem."

Earlier:

A scheduled sitting of the Stormont Assembly to nominate new leading ministers has been cancelled after talks to restore a powersharing government collapsed.

The decision of the party whips to pull the plenary makes it all but inevitable that today's 4pm deadline for forming an executive will pass without agreement.

Reacting to the latest developments, Mrs Foster claimed Sinn Féin's "inflexible" approach to negotiations was to blame.

The DUP leader said she did not believe another election would solve anything.

"We wonder whether Sinn Féin were serious about reaching agreement at this time," said the former First Minister.

"We are just disappointed that Sinn Féin did not come to the talks in the same spirit as we came to the talks.

"We respect everybody's mandates, let me make that very clear, but if we wanted to form an executive, then there had to be a spirit of compromise and unfortunately that didn't exist."

Mrs Foster claimed while her party entered talks in "good faith", Sinn Féin were not in "agreement-finding mode".

"These talks did not fail because of a lack of time, these talks failed because there wasn't a recognition of everyone's mandates and there wasn't a spirit of compromise to get back into the executive," she said.

Noting potential cuts to public services if the civil service takes control of a reduced budget allocation, the DUP leader accused the republican party of putting its "narrow political agenda" above people's livelihoods.

"The government of Northern Ireland is not a game, it is actually very serious and the fact we do not have an executive being formed today is very regrettable," she added.

After today's 4pm deadline passes, focus will shift to the UK's Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire.

Under legislation, he is required to call another snap election if the deadline passes.

However, he is not obliged to set a poll date immediately, rather within a "reasonable period".

Mr Brokenshire may therefore delay calling an election to give a few more weeks to reach consensus.

He could countenance the nuclear option of reintroducing direct rule from Westminster, but that move - which would require emergency legislation - looks unlikely at this stage.

Talks collapsed last night after Sinn Féin announced it would not be nominating a deputy first minister in the Assembly on Monday.

Without both first and deputy first ministers it is impossible to form an executive.

In the absence of a functioning devolved government, a senior civil servant is set to take control of the region's public finances on Wednesday, albeit with limits on his spending powers.

Green Party leader Steven Agnew voted against axing the Assembly sitting in the whips' meeting.

"Today was an opportunity to explain to the public what has been happening since the election, since they gave us a resounding mandate to get the Assembly and institutions back up and running," he said.

"That opportunity has been wasted and an agreement among the parties to not hold the sitting today denies that openness, that transparency and that accountability."

Powersharing collapsed in January after a row over a botched green energy scheme estimated to cost the taxpayer up to half a billion pounds.

The late Martin McGuinness resigned as deputy first minister in protest over the Democratic Unionists' handling of the scheme, triggering crisis in the institutions.

Sinn Féin has said it will not share power with Democratic Unionist leader Arlene Foster as first minister until a public inquiry into the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme is concluded.

Republicans have also been seeking movement on issues such as an Irish language act giving the tongue official status in Northern Ireland, a hugely symbolic measure but deeply problematic for some unionists.

New mechanisms for dealing with the legacy of the Troubles also remain a source of vexed dispute.

A voting surge by Sinn Fein in the snap Assembly election earlier this month saw the party come within one seat of becoming the biggest party at Stormont behind the DUP.

A symbolic handshake between Mrs Foster and Sinn Féin's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill at the funeral of Mr McGuinness last week had raised some expectation the talks might end more positively.

DUP deputy leader Nigel Dodds said Sinn Féin had not followed through on the gesture.

"That handshake represented a reaching-out but the inclusivity that that represents was not then carried forward into the talks," he said.