The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, is expected to meet the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, in Belfast this afternoon as part of the effort to revive the peace process and restore the institutions in Northern Ireland following last Friday's suspension order. The visit, according to Dublin sources, reflected the urgency of the situation and the need to use the latest report from the Independent International Commission on Decommissioning as a basis for bringing back the power-sharing executive and other bodies set up under the Belfast Agreement.
Dublin was placing particular importance on the IICD's statement that a representative of the republican movement had indicated "the context in which the IRA will initiate a comprehensive process to put arms beyond use, in a manner as to ensure public confidence".
Much weight is also being placed on the belief expressed in the report that the IRA commitment holds out the prospect of an agreement which would enable the IICD to "fulfil the substance of its mandate", namely to facilitate the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons.
"Our priority is to get the institutions back as quickly as possible," Dublin sources said. The longer the review, the more difficult it would be to achieve a successful outcome and the process could end up being permanently frozen.
Mr Cowen will be stressing the need for the two governments to work together to ensure the suspension is short-lived.
"We would be deeply concerned if there was any extension of the suspension period," senior sources said.
British government sources said today's meeting was typical of the kind of encounter required when there were difficulties in the peace process.
There was no British-Irish rift, merely "differences of emphasis". The Irish side had a particular constituency: "We have to think in the round of all sides." British sources stressed "the ball is still in play - we need to move on".
This morning, Mr Mandelson addresses the British-Irish Inter-parliamentary Body in London, where he is expected to say that peace processes always work best when all sides co-operate with one another.
Meanwhile, republican sources were expressing grave concern, verging on alarm, about the future of the peace process.
They accused Mr Mandelson of allowing Mr David Trimble to dictate his actions. Republicans were extremely sceptical about the prospects of an imminent rescindment of the suspension order, as suggested by the SDLP.
"The Irish Government should have said: `We are not going to tolerate this being suspended over our heads and we are publicly going to say this is a breach of international law', " republican sources said.
There is now a question mark over Sinn Fein's participation in a review if the conditions appear to allow for any re-negotiation of the Belfast Agreement, although some political insiders doubt this threat will be carried out. The withdrawal of the IRA interlocutor from contact with Gen. John de Chastelain is also threatened.
The Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said yesterday that the forthcoming review offered an ideal opportunity for unionists to regroup and to find the basis for a greater degree of unity within the party and in unionism generally.
"The review also gives us the chance to address the various issues of concern for unionists, such as the absolute need for total disarmament by the paramilitary organisations, the future of the RUC and certain deficiencies in the structures and mechanisms of the assembly and its executive," the Lagan Valley MP said.
He wanted executive ministers to be made more accountable to the assembly and for the departmental scrutiny committees to be given more teeth. Mr Donaldson was understood to be anxious to avoid a repetition of decisions such as the one made by Ms Bairbre de Brun, in her capacity as Minister of Health, to site the Belfast maternity unit at the Royal Victoria Hospital in defiance of the wishes of the majority of the health committee in the assembly.
Mr Donaldson said the early release of convicted paramilitary prisoners must be halted in the absence of arms decommissioning by the organisations benefiting from the scheme.
He said he was encouraged by the outcome of Saturday's meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council: "We had a good debate on the various issues concerning us and there was broad consensus on how we should proceed." He paid tribute to the party president, Sir Josias Cunningham, for strictly upholding the integrity and self-determination of the party in the hours leading up to suspension.
Mr Trimble is expected to announce in mid-week the composition of the working party formed to set out the UUP's strategy for the review. It will be representative of different currents in the party and is likely to contain about six or seven senior party members, who will almost certainly include Mr Donaldson.