Northern Ireland's rival parties stand on the verge of reviving a power-sharing government that could help the volatile province handle the pressures of Brexit.
The parties are being pushed towards an agreement by the threat of a new regional election, which will be called if no government is formed by Monday.
It has been two years since Northern Ireland had a functioning regional assembly.
A draft deal for how the new executive would work was released late on Thursday by the UK's Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith and Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney.
"We have put in place a series of what I would regard as very fair compromises to move things forward," Coveney said.
The region's devolved assembly at Stormont collapsed in January 2017 over allegations the government was misusing renewable energy funds.
Numerous rounds of increasingly acrimonious negotiations failed to find an agreement and basic services were left unattended - eventually sparking workers' strikes.
The latest talks were launched in the wake of a December 12 UK general election that saw smaller parties gain momentum, stripping the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of its powerful voice in London.
The pro-Irish republican Sinn Fein party, which does not send its lawmakers to the UK parliament because it does not recognise its rule, also saw its overall voter share slip.
Analysts attributed the two big parties' losses to voter frustration at their inability to reach a compromise that could let a government in Belfast take care of the region's daily needs.
DUP leader Arlene Foster called the draft agreement "fair and balanced".
"It does of course bring forward Irish language legislation, but it also recognises that there are those of us living in Northern Ireland who are very much Ulster British," she said.
"There's a commissioner there to deal with the concerns of the Ulster British community. So I think it is a balanced deal."
Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald said late Thursday that the party's senior leaders would give the draft "careful consideration" on Friday.
Election pressure
A 1998 peace accord that ended three decades of violence over British rule of Northern Ireland in which thousands died requires the two main parties to share power.
The lack of an executive is especially fraught with danger for the region because of historic changes to its trade rules being imposed by Britain's pending withdrawal from the European Union.
Northern Ireland's border with the Republic of Ireland to the south provides the only UK-EU land frontier.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's EU withdrawal agreement puts pressure on local authorities to maintain frictionless trade while preserving an open border on the island of Ireland.
Negotiations to revive Stormont have been stuck on disagreements over the use of the Irish language and a mechanism giving minority governments veto rights.
The draft requires the executive "to provide official recognition of the status of the Irish language in Northern Ireland" and "respect the freedom of all persons... to choose, affirm, maintain and develop their national and cultural identity".
It also eliminates the veto mechanism and requires the parties to build consensus on issues of dispute.
The UK government additionally promises to deliver a new financial package for the region that allows outstanding public sector salaries to be paid.
"This deal is a balanced package," a Downing Street spokesman told reporters in London.
"It is up to the parties to come together now and accept this deal in the interests of everybody in Northern Ireland."
Downing Street said the precise amount of new funding would be spelled out when agreement was reached.
Some analysts said much will now depend on whether Sinn Fein and the DUP are able to rally their more strident grassroots members around the deal.
"A similar deal, tabled in February 2018, collapsed after backlash from the DUP grassroots," noted the New Statesman, a politics and current affairs magazine.
"No matter what Foster says now, history could yet repeat itself."