TheTaoiseach, Mr Ahern, will meet the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, at Chequers this morning to discuss the continuing political impasse in Northern Ireland.
Official sources were at pains last night to stress this was "an informal meeting" and not a full-blown summit. However the fact of the meeting - the third between the two leaders in two months - will reinforce the sense of a quickening pace in political developments following the suspension of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Some political sources also suggested that today's encounter could be more significant than officials would allow, following the postponement of a meeting between Mr Blair and the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, planned for last Thursday afternoon. It is believed Mr Trimble will now see the Prime Minister next Tuesday.
This high-level diplomacy will also reinforce the suspicion among some of the smaller parties that the real discussions designed to restore the devolved institutions are taking place behind the scenes and not at the multi-party talks at Stormont.
It is understood senior Sinn Féin figures have had at least two undisclosed meetings with Downing Street officials in recent weeks. This emerged last night as a number of key insiders across the political spectrum confirmed their view that the two governments and the Northern Ireland parties could be facing a negotiation at least as far-reaching as that which preceded the Belfast Agreement in 1998.
Following Mr Blair's call for "acts of completion" and an end to all forms of paramilitarism, a senior Sinn Féin source told The Irish Times he believes the unfolding agenda will take the parties into territory "radically and fundamentally different from anything we've had before".
At the same time he echoed the insistence of Whitehall sources that talks between republicans and the British government have not reached "the point of definition" of a plan to break the deadlock. Warning against media hype, he said: "There is a familiarity with the dance which leads people to the presumption that a deal can be done. That could be a mistake." However, some senior Ulster Unionists fear the outline of a potential British/Sinn Féin deal is already in place, and that this explains the Taoiseach's continued insistence that devolved government can be restored by next February, if not before.
It has become clear in recent days that Sinn Féin's demand for the early devolution of policing and justice powers to Stormont has moved rapidly up the agenda. In addition to further policing reforms, beyond those announced by Secretary of State Mr Paul Murphy last week, Sinn Féin is pressing London to revoke the legislation introduced by Mr Peter Mandelson in February 2000 giving the British the power to suspend the devolved institutions.
Unionists are already privately discounting suggestions that an announcement that the IRA was being stood down, coupled with a Sinn Féin commitment to join the Policing Board, would represent a sufficient or convincing act of republican completion.
At his meeting with Mr Blair next week Mr Trimble seems certain to re-open the question of decommissioning paramilitary weapons and the process of verification, along with the introduction of sanctions to be deployed exclusively against any party in government - for which read Sinn Féin - subsequently found in breach of its commitment to exclusively peaceful and democratic means.
It seems also that the British government considers the reform of the Ulster Unionist Party, and the end of its association with the Orange Order, to be an act of completion to be undertaken by Mr Trimble as part of any new deal.