The Irish and British Governments have called on the Independent Monitoring Commission to examine the circumstances of last week's alleged kidnap attempt in Belfast.
A statement released jointly today by both governments was issued following a meeting in Stormont between the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, Northern Secretary Mr Paul Murphy and the North's political parties.
It stated that there was a concern that last Friday's alleged kidnap attempt by the Provisional IRA of dissident republican Mr Bobby Tohill was in breach of the Joint Declaration.
The governments asked the IMC to report on last week's events in its first report and asked for it to be delivered in May, two months earlier than the initial date of delivery in July.
The DUP and Ulster Unionists yesterday called for Sinn Féin to be expelled from the review while the SDLP said the Independent Monitoring Commission must arbitrate on whether the IRA was behind the attack on Mr Tohill in Kelly's Cellars bar in Belfast city centre on Friday night.
The IMC's purpose is to monitor and report on the carrying out of the commitments relating to the ending of paramilitary activity and the programme of security normalisation, as set out in the Joint Declaration.
It also has a more general responsibility to consider claims by any party in the Assembly that another party is in breach of requirements in the Declaration of Support or elsewhere in the Agreement.
The Governments, in their statement, also welcomed the earlier statement today by the UDA/UFF in which the paramilitary groups said they would extend their ceasefire 'indefinitely'.
However, they said it was "vital" that the actions of the UDA would "match the words spoken today" and that the IMC would also have an "important role to play" in this regard.