The Irish and British governments are attempting to devise a formula linking the removal of British troops and security installations from the North with an IRA commitment to decommissioning in a last-ditch effort to resolve the political crisis.
Three of the most senior Irish officials involved in the peace process returned to Dublin last night after 24 hours of intensive talks with high-level officials from Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Office.
All or some of them are likely to travel to Northern Ireland today as part of a frantic final attempt to prevent the suspension of the North's new political institutions.
As the legislation to give power to suspend the institutions to the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr Peter Mandelson, proceeds through Westminster, Government sources believe Mr Mandelson may postpone exercising this power until 10 p.m. on Friday. Mr David Trimble faces his Ulster Unionist Council on Saturday morning.
There is speculation that Mr Trimble may visit Dublin for talks with the Taoiseach tomorrow. Mr Ahern told the Dail yesterday that the issue could still be resolved without suspending the institutions. "There are formulae through which it would be possible to achieve movement. We will keep trying but the time limits are tight. We have a few days, effectively, to make progress."
The key element of the formula currently being devised would be an agreement by the IRA to speak again to the chairman of the decommissioning body, Gen John de Chastelain.
The IRA would have to say enough to the general to allow him to say he believes the organisation will begin the decommissioning process and will agree to work out a timetable and "modalities" of decommissioning.
To encourage the IRA to take this step, the prospect of a firm British commitment to - and ultimately a timetable for - "normalisation" measures is under stood to have been held out. This would involve reductions in the number of British troops on the streets of the North and the dismantling of security installations, particularly in rural nationalist communities where their continued existence causes great anger.
A British government document on normalisation produced late last year said the security presence would be reviewed, "taking account of the prevailing threat".
A report on how this could be achieved was due to be completed by the British government early this year.
However, even if holding out a "normalisation" programme helped to produce a strong verbal IRA commitment to decommissioning, and to working out a timetable for decommissioning, it is still doubtful whether this alone would be enough to allow Mr Trimble win a vote at Saturday's crucial meeting unless the institutions had been suspended.
Government sources still hope that if the IRA's commitment was strong enough it could persuade the UUP leader to attempt to get through Saturday's meeting without the suspension of the institutions.
The Taoiseach revealed yesterday that he had been in contact with President Clinton over the past few days.
According to a Government spokesman, Mr Ahern is likely to speak again to Mr Clinton today.
Intensive activity is continuing in an attempt to find a resolution, with the number of meetings and contacts indicating that there is still hope that the crisis can be averted.