The seriousness of London and Dublin intentions for this month's Leeds Castle talks on the North was underlined last night as the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, held his first meeting with the Independent Monitoring Commission.
Commission chairman Lord Alderdice confirmed that they had requested the meeting because the forthcoming period of intensive political activity had potentially significant implications for the commission's role in monitoring both the levels of paramilitary activity and the British government's programme of security "normalisation" measures.
Speaking after almost an hour of talks with Mr Blair at 10 Downing Street, Lord Alderdice, accompanied by other commission members, indicated that the commission had no plans to bring forward its next report, due in October. Nor, he said, did they propose "at this stage" to change the existing schedule for six monthly reports.
Despite a rising level of expectancy for the Leeds Castle talks, a senior Democratic Unionist Party source told The Irish Times last night that his party was sticking to its view that any possible agreement for the restoration of the Assembly would require satisfactory reports from the commission, and from General John de Chastelain's international decommissioning body, after a further six-month interlude.
While not ruling out the possibility of an agreement in principle, that would appear to preclude the possibility of a restored power-sharing administration at Stormont before mid-March of next year at the earliest.
Downing Street refused to be drawn on the detail of its approach to this or any of the other issues which continue to be the subject of intensive behind-the-scenes discussion. When specifically asked, a spokesman refused to comment on the question of a timetable for reports by the Independent Monitoring Commission.
Stressing the British government's determination "to go for a deal" between the Democratic Unionist Party and Sinn Féin, however, the spokesman added: "It is important that people don't regard these forthcoming talks as another stop on the tour of the great houses of England and Ireland."
Although it was believed the Commission had given Mr Blair an updated assessment of paramilitary activity in the North, Lord Alderdice said they had not gone further than the terms of their previously published report.