The incredible game of cat and mouse between the Madrid government and the Catalan devolved government continues.
And that's been the tactic all along from the Catalan government. It's been putting threats on the table, it's been speaking to the media and saying: "I will go ahead and declare independence from Spain come what may", "I will hold that referendum of more than a week ago even though it has been declared illegal by the Spanish state, even though they try to arrest officials and try to break it up".
And now Carles Puigdemont is saying: "I am still going to declare independence from Spain, but I am giving them some time, a window."
That is a window where there can in theory be mediation - and we are hearing that there are mediation efforts by an international organisation, according to our sources, involving very very senior international political figures.
In a sense his stark warnings haven't changed. But he will still be under pressure, not only from his own party but other pro-independence Catalan parties which he depends on for a majority in parliament to actually keep this whole project going.
He's given them maybe enough, but is their patience going to run out? And then there's the other dimension in this - the Spanish government in Madrid.
Independence supporters had been sharing the Catalan hashtag #10ODeclaració (10 October Declaration) on Twitter, amid expectations that Mr Puigdemont would ask parliament to declare independence on the basis of the referendum law it passed last month.
But influential figures including Barcelona's mayor Ada Colau and European Council President Donald Tusk had urged Mr Puigdemont to step back from declaring independence.
The Madrid government had called on the Catalan leader "not to do anything irreversible, not to pursue a path of no return and not to make any unilateral independence declaration".
Mr Tusk said: "A few days ago I asked [Spanish] Prime Minister Rajoy to look for a solution to the problem without the use of force, to look for dialogue, because the use of dialogue is always better.
"Diversity should not and need not lead to conflict whose consequences would obviously be bad for the Catalans, for Spain and for whole of Europe."
Mr Rajoy is due to appear in Spain's parliament on Wednesday. He has already said any declaration of independence by Catalonia would "lead to nothing".
A stream of companies have announced plans to move their head offices out of Catalonia in response to the crisis.
It is one of Spain's wealthiest regions, accounting for a quarter of the country's exports.
The European Union has made clear that should Catalonia split from Spain, the region would cease to be part of the EU.
Catalonia, a part of the Spanish state for centuries but with its own distinct language and culture, enjoys broad autonomy under the Spanish constitution.
However, a 2005 amendment redefining the region as a "nation", boosting the status of the Catalan language and increasing local control over taxes and the judiciary was reversed by the Constitutional Court in 2010.
The economic crisis further fuelled discontent and pro-independence parties took power in the region in the 2015 elections.
Attempts to hold a legal Scottish-style referendum on independence have got nowhere with the Spanish government.
