The Taoiseach and the British prime minister will have their first face-to-face meeting since IRA decommissioning in Downing Street this afternoon.
Last night Irish sources downplayed expectations about the meeting between Bertie Ahern and Tony Blair, their first since since June. The Taoiseach is understood to be keen for a timetable to be agreed between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party as all sides await a report from the Independent Monitoring Commission.
The IMC is expected to tell the governments on Friday that early indications show the IRA is observing the commitment to end activity made in its July 28th statement. It is expected to state guardedly that the IRA appears to have ceased a wide range of paramilitary operations while stressing that too little time has elapsed to make a definitive judgment on IRA activity.
"The general tenor of the report is likely to be, so far so reasonably good," said one well-placed source.
The four members of the IMC are meeting this week to finalise their report which will be released for public examination at a press conference next week.
It is expected to state that the IRA has carried out so-called punishment attacks and shootings and surveillance but this activity took place before the late July statement by the IRA saying it was ending its armed campaign.
The official period of the report is from March 1st to August 31st this year. Since it is just over two months since the IRA statement the IMC is expected to be qualified and careful in its comments and to state that it will take at least until the next report due in January before making fuller pronouncements about IRA activity.
The IMC report is also expected to include a section on IRA criminality which is likely to point to the "complexities" of addressing this issue. It is expected to highlight how it may be difficult to make a distinction between whether particular forms of criminality are officially sanctioned by the IRA or "whether they are carried out by ex-IRA members or IRA members acting in a freelance or personal capacity".
The two leaders are expected to discuss the Assets Recovery Agency's move against properties allegedly owned or controlled by Thomas "Slab" Murphy, the alleged chief of staff of the IRA.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams, speaking in Kerry last night, said the meeting between Mr Ahern and Mr Blair will "be an important test of their commitment" to the process.
At the launch of Man of Kerry, a biography of Kerry North TD Martin Ferris, Mr Adams said: "There are a number of things that need to happen and on which the two governments have already made commitments - the political institutions need to be restored, the British government need to come forward with legislation on policing and justice, the Equality Commission and Human Rights Commission need additional resources and powers, Northern representation for all MPs - nationalist, unionist and republican - in the Oireachtas, and the completion of the process of demilitarisation."