The British government is to make an announcement soon on its evaluation of new evidence about the Bloody Sunday killings of 14 civil rights marchers in 1972.
A spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Office said last night: "We have been considering this new evidence, given to us by the Dublin Government, and although I can't put a timescale on any announcement, an announcement is due shortly, as soon as possible".
She did not confirm a report that the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, would apologise for what happened, and that a senior judge or lawyer would be appointed to conduct an independent review of the evidence.
There have been suggestions that Mr Blair is anxious to have the matter out of the way before the 26th anniversary of the killings on January 30th.
British ministers have spent several months examining a dossier on the shootings, carried out by the Parachute Regiment, presented to it by the Government in Dublin.
The Government and nationalist parties in Northern Ireland have been pressing for a new inquiry into it, arguing that the original investigation, by the late Lord Justice Widgery, failed to establish where responsibility for the bloodshed lay.
The Widgery report concluded the soldiers were telling the truth when they claimed they opened fire in self-defence.