The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, will decide at the end of this month whether the IRA ceasefire is genuine. Her view of the cessation so far was "very positive", she said yesterday.
In a speech marking her first 100 days in office, Dr Mowlam said that she was seeking an agreement, anchored by the principle of consent, which would be "more broadly-based than the AngloIrish Agreement".
Dr Mowlam, who meets Mr Gerry Adams for the first time at Stormont tomorrow morning, had no concerns about the encounter turning into a republican propaganda exercise or a media circus.
Speaking in Belfast after meeting Northern Ireland business, trade union and community leaders, she said that she would have no difficulty in shaking hands with the Sinn Fein president, in public or in private.
"I presume there will be a handshake. I don't plan to be rude. I plan to be as straightforward with Mr Adams as I am with anybody else. I don't know if it [the handshake] will be in public, but we may manage it, you never know."
She hoped that there would be an accommodation over the Apprentice Boys parade in Derry on Saturday. "I think the first two weeks [of the ceasefire] have been very positive. But it is important, not just in Derry at the weekend, but across the board, that we do see a genuineness both in word and deed. So I hope it will continue."
At the end of this month, if she judged the IRA ceasefire to be genuine, she would invite Sinn Fein to talks, as was her "responsibility under the law".
Dr Mowlam pledged that the international commission to deal with decommissioning would be in place before substantive talks began on September 15th.
There was a chance to begin an era of constructive engagement involving bridge-building between the two communities. Part of the settlement would involve the replacement of the Anglo-Irish Agreement.
"The British and Irish governments, too, have an opportunity to improve the basis on which we work together. One which embraces balanced constitutional change. And one that is more broadly-based than the AngloIrish Agreement. These are all key elements in the new settlement we are working for", she added.
Decommissioning was not an arbitrary or unreal issue, she continued. "It is, as it always has been, about trust and confidence. We are committed to the total disarmament of all paramilitary organisations. The same has to be true for everyone in the talks."
Both governments remained committed to their paper on decommissioning. "Confidence is a two-way thing", she added. "Those who in the past have taken the path of terrorism must play their part in helping to restore normality. The ceasefires are a major and essential contribution."
Dr Mowlam said that at times over the past three months she had been frustrated, particularly during Drumcree, "when no one would move away from their bottom lines for the sake of anybody else".
But there were also encouraging signs for the future, such as the decision by the Orange Order to reroute some of its parades, the IRA ceasefire, the decision of the Ulster Unionist Party not to walk away from talks and the general patience of the other parties to the talks.