The Taoiseach and British prime minister will outline agreed proposals to make political progress in the North as early as next week, having concluded much earlier than expected that talks between the political parties are making no headway.
Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern will announce how they intend to proceed next Wednesday after a meeting in Downing Street.
The speed with which they have decided to move has surprised observers, coming just a month after they said they hoped inter-party talks would reach a deal this year to re-establish the North's power-sharing institutions.
There is considerable speculation that their joint plan could involve the restoration of the Northern Assembly in "shadow" form, with a subsequent deadline for full restoration conditional on agreement to re-establish the power-sharing executive as well.
The DUP has been urging London to re-establish the Assembly, but does not want a deadline set for the re-establishment of the other institutions.
However, yesterday Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said the Assembly should be closed and salaries to its members stopped if the DUP refused to engage meaningfully in talks.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said yesterday that the two governments wanted to do things by agreement, "but as always in these things if we can't get agreement we might have to make a call. That day is getting closer than we perhaps anticipated earlier, given the fact that we are not having the type of engagement perhaps that we would prefer."
The DUP is refusing to contemplate any participation in power-sharing institutions with Sinn Féin at this stage.
Mr Ahern said yesterday that "the two governments are fast coming to the view that we need to make decisions as to how we are going to proceed very soon.
"The Taoiseach and the prime minister will be meeting next week and part of what we decide as a strategy will be discussed in advance of that meeting and at that meeting. We are looking at options to bring matters to a head. You can take it that Peter Hain and I have discussed ad nauseam how we will proceed. We have a number of options. No decisions have been made so far."
Mr Adams yesterday led an 11- member Sinn Féin delegation to meet the Taoiseach, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Justice. They expressed opposition to restoring the Assembly in "shadow" form, a point they will make to Mr Blair, whom they will meet in Downing Street today.
The Taoiseach will meet an SDLP delegation in Dublin today in advance of next week's efforts to force the pace of talks.
Mr Adams said after yesterday's meeting that he had "grave concerns that the Government are prepared to contemplate DUP proposals to put in place a shadow assembly. We ruled that out very, very firmly because it won't work. It's a sop to the DUP."
Such "pandering" to DUP proposals would encourage that party not to compromise.
"He [ the Rev Ian Paisley] is not going to move if he doesn't feel any incentive to move."
He called on the governments to ensure the lifting of the suspension of the institutions of the Belfast Agreement and to hold a new Assembly election by early summer. If that didn't happen, the Assembly should be abolished.
"Let's be clear about this: the Assembly doesn't exist. The emperor has no clothes. It isn't as if there is an Assembly up and galloping there. It never met."
What was needed was to put all the institutions in place, not just a shadow form of the Assembly, he said.