Talks between senior Dublin civil servants and senior Provisional republican figures are to reconvene over the next two days to see if there can be any movement on decommissioning.
According to Garda sources yesterday, however, there is still strong opposition within the IRA to even a small decommissioning gesture in the period set out by the unionist leadership.
Yesterday evening the chairman of the Independent International Commission, Gen. de Chastelain, met a senior Department of Justice official in Dublin for discussions. The Department did not wish to comment on the meeting. The general has met senior officials at the Department of Justice before.
It is thought likely that last evening's meeting was to discuss the possibility of a further report from the independent commission in the light of any change in the IRA's position on decommissioning in the coming days.
Any hope for a change in the IRA position will come from the work of the team of senior civil servants from Dublin who will renew talks in an attempt to gain some kind of concession from the IRA. These talks, which began last Friday, broke off without success on Monday night.
The venue of the talks is likely to remain secret. It is understood the weekend talks took place at a venue in the North, possibly near Belfast, organised by the republicans.
While Gen. de Chastelain's report is being kept secret at the request of both governments, sources close to the talks yesterday admitted that it did not contain any "positive" evidence of IRA moves on decommissioning.
The report is understood to confirm that a number of meetings had taken place between Gen. de Chastelain and the two IRA interlocutors appointed in December to conduct negotiations with the commission.
However, sources have indicated that there is no hope of any form of IRA decommissioning before the scheduled Ulster Unionist meeting in 10 days. It is understood there is very strong opposition to any such move from republicans in the Border and mid-Ulster areas.
In recent weeks it is suspected that IRA elements in the north Monaghan area carried out training with automatic weapons in the wooded hills above Scotstown. Local sources said the firing of weapons was a demonstration that the IRA in the area was strongly opposed to any decommissioning.
It is also understood that in the secret talks with the Dublin civil servants, the Provisional republicans advised the officials that there was very strong grassroots opposition to decommissioning within the unionist time-frame.
It was not clear yesterday if the republicans were prepared to make concessions on decommissioning before the May 22nd deadline laid down in the Belfast Agreement.
The new contacts between the two sets of negotiators are likely to continue up to the last minute of the two-day period set down by both governments for consideration of the political crisis at Stormont.
The Government hopes that if the IRA can make some concession this will be conveyed to the commission through the interlocutors.
In a statement to RTE yesterday, IRA sources indicated that there was contact between their interlocutors and the commission on Monday evening. But it would appear that this was only to convey that there was no change in the IRA's position.