The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, are to meet in Dublin this afternoon to assess the fallout from the Ulster Unionist Party's threat to collapse the North's power-sharing administration.
The two will take stock of the ultimatum by the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, that he and his ministers will pull out of the Executive after January 18th if the IRA has not disarmed and disbanded by then.
Mr Trimble has already announced his party will boycott any cross-border ministerial meetings involving Sinn Fein.
A Northern Ireland Office source described it as an opportunity to assess the damage caused to the Belfast Agreement by the moves ratified at a weekend UUP Council meeting.
He said: "They will be taking stock of where we are and ways of resolving the difficulties in the process.
"No doubt there will be other meetings with other groups and parties."