The British government is expected to order judicial inquiries into the murders of Ms Rosemary Nelson, Mr Billy Wright and Mr Robert Hamill in accordance with the Cory recommendations due to be published in London this afternoon.
A reliable, well-placed political source told The Irish Times that a fourth inquiry with "Bloody Sunday inquiry powers" will also be ordered into the murder of Mr Pat Finucane.
However the commencement of such an inquiry may be affected by the ongoing investigation led by Britain's top police officer, Sir John Stevens, and by the forthcoming trial of Ken Barrett.
Barrett, a self-confessed loyalist killer, was arrested in England last year, and returned to Northern Ireland to face charges of murdering Mr Finucane in 1989. He also has been charged with attempted murder, theft of British army weapons and membership of the Ulster Freedom Fighters. He denies the charges.
The source insisted that the British government would honour the commitments made at the Weston Park talks in 2001 concerning the appointment of Judge Peter Cory to investigate cases where collusion is alleged and to follow his recommendations. "The inquiries will be up to scratch," the source said. "We will do Weston Park. We will stand by those commitments."
The Irish Times was also told that measures to control the cost and length of such an inquiry were also being considered. The Bloody Sunday tribunal was established in 1998, and its costs are estimated at some £150 million.
Judge Cory handed over his reports in both London and Dublin on October 7th last.
Last December the Irish Government published the two Cory reports which concerned murders in which Garda collusion with paramilitaries was alleged, and followed the judge's recommendation.
Families involved in the other four cases have complained of the delay in publication by the British government. The Finucane, Wright, Hamill and Nelson families received copies of the Cory reports yesterday, under pledge not to divulge their contents.
Two of the families insisted that only full, international judicial inquiries with full powers will be acceptable.
Ms Geraldine Finucane, widow of murdered solicitor Pat Finucane, and Mr David Wright, whose son Billy was shot dead by the INLA at the Maze prison in 1997, warned the British government that they would not be satisfied with anything short of an international judicial inquiry.
"I don't have much faith that the British government will put an inquiry in place that is significant," Ms Finucane said yesterday. "They will be handing us the type of inquiry they are allowing us to have."
Mr Wright said he would have nothing to do with any inquiry that fell short of what he deemed necessary. "Anything less offered to me I won't participate in," he said.
Mr Barra McGrory, solicitor for the Nelson and Hamill families, expressed their unhappiness that they will only be informed of the British decision regarding inquiries 30 minutes before the government statement is made in the House of Commons at 12.30 p.m. by the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy.
Ms Rosemary Nelson died in a car bomb near her home in 1999 and Mr Robert Hamill was kicked to death by loyalists in Portadown, Co Armagh, in 1997.
Mr Tony Blair's government has already been severely criticised by nationalist parties and human rights observers for the delay in acting upon the Cory recommendations.