The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, may postpone until after the weekend a final decision on whether to travel to Belfast next week, Frank Millar, London Editor, writes.
The leaders are to make a joint bid to conclude agreement on the ministerial line-up of the Northern Ireland executive and the designation and remit of the cross-Border implementation bodies.
As Mr Blair and Mr Ahern prepared for this morning's breakfast summit on the margins of the EU Council meeting in Vienna, official sources said a resolution of the current impasse would "almost certainly come down" to direct intervention by the two leaders.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr David Andrews, held talks over dinner in London last night with the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam. Before the meeting Mr Andrews said he hoped their discussions "would provide some sort of substantive information" for the prime ministerial discussions in Vienna.
He stressed the importance of resolving the dispute about the executive and the implementation bodies in order to sustain momentum on other fronts, notably the decommissioning issue.
But it was generally acknowledged that Mr Ahern and Mr Blair would be unlikely to significantly advance the situation before Mr David Trimble's return on Sunday.
There was speculation that next week's scheduled meeting of the Northern Ireland Assembly might be put back to facilitate a fresh round of negotiations involving the Taoiseach and Prime Minister and the North's party leaders.
But following the disputes and recriminations which attended Mr Blair's round of diplomacy in Belfast last week, sources said he and Mr Ahern would want to be pretty certain of a successful outcome before launching a high-profile initiative.
