The government is continuing to work for a Northern Ireland peace deal, Tony Blair has told the media.

But at his monthly press conference, the prime minister accepted that reaching agreement was "always difficult".

Following Tuesday's failed talks, negotiations have continued between the British and Irish governments, Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party.

Blair defended the latest deal despite David Trimble's request for more clarity on IRA decommissioning.

The Ulster Unionist leader said that the international decommissioning body had failed to provide sufficient information about the amount of weapons which were being put beyond use.

"We thought that we were able to get rather more information that we did," said the prime minister. "You have just got to work through it."

But he urged the public to realise that Tuesday's events were "very substantial".

The "real significance" was that the IRA had accepted an end to the conflict without guaranteeing their objective of a united Ireland.

Attempts to reach agreement would continue over the coming days, the prime minister said.

"I can't be sure exactly what is going to happen over the next couple of days, but I hope we can find a way through," he told journalists.

Hopes of a deal have centred on whether republicans will permit greater clarity on the details of the IRA's latest act of decommissioning.

David Trimble hopes a deal is "retrievable" but only if there is greater transparency in the decommissioning process.

Sinn Fein, however, has warned that there is little scope for a deal.

Gerry Adams said he had not received "a satisfactory answer" as to why full agreement between the parties had not followed the IRA's statement.

"This was not a question of presentation," Adams told a West Belfast press conference on Wednesday.

The progress could be "diminished" by the latest difficulties, the Sinn Fein chief warned.

"That is something at all costs that must be avoided," said Adams.