The British and Irish governments meet today for talks to assess possible new approaches in the political process thrown into turmoil by the PSNI Chief Constable's assertion that the IRA was responsible for the £26.7 million Northern Bank robbery which republicans have denied.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, meets the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, at Iveagh House in Dublin.
Mr Ahern said yesterday he endorsed the Taoiseach's view that republicans were behind the robbery. "There is nobody on either side of the Border who believes that the robbery was caused by someone other than those people associated with the IRA in some shape or form."
He told RTÉ that political progress was still possible despite the fallout after the robbery. "We need to protect the gains we have already achieved," he said.
But he added: "We need to examine new avenues. We can't ignore - and neither can Sinn Féin or indeed the DUP - the principles of the Good Friday agreement.
"We had a situation where the DUP were actually accepting the principle of the Good Friday agreement, something which they railed upon. So what we achieved in the run-up to the end of last year was extremely significant and we can't go back and do away with those gains. We need to move forward."
A spokesman for Mr Murphy told The Irish Times that today's talks would help set the scene for talks between the Taoiseach and Mr Tony Blair later this month.
Regarding the agenda for the Iveagh House meeting, "nothing has been ruled in or out", the Northern Ireland Office said.
The talks follow calls from senior SDLP members for a fresh look at the means of attaining political progress and re-establishing devolution in the North.
South Down MP Mr Eddie McGrady said last night: "We've got to start thinking again how to implement the Good Friday agreement."
He told The Irish Times that the process of delivering peace through the Belfast Agreement had stopped. "Accordingly we've got to think radically at every opportunity," he said.
He stood by the principle of inclusivity. "Inclusivity means you draw up guidelines to protect all interests as far as is possible," he added. "If [ one party] doesn't want to, then they exclude themselves." He said the IRA Army Council had to be "taken out of the equation".
The party's deputy leader, Dr Alasdair McDonnell, said: "We feel betrayed by Provo bad faith and believe we cannot allow the Good Friday agreement and the progress made on the back of it to be held to ransom by the narrow self-interest of any party. We remain keen to see an inclusive process involving all who are fully committed to exclusively peaceful and democratic means. Serious doubts have arisen as to the sincerity of the Sinn Féin approach."
Their comments follow fresh claims from Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness that he accepted IRA denials of involvement in the bank robbery.
He claimed that had the IRA carried out the raid, it would have been "unacceptable".
Mr McGuinness told the BBC: "If the IRA had been involved in that robbery then there would have been a defining moment in Sinn Féin's leadership's work with the IRA. I would not have stood for it."