A meeting is underway in Dublin where Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams leader is to urge party colleagues to call an ardfheis to resolve the issue of republican support for the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
The motion being put forward by Gerry Adams is to convene an Ard Fheis in Dublin on January 28th.
The 56-member party executive originally backed moves on December 29 recommending a special conference this month of rank and file members to decide if they should endorse Sir Hugh Orde's Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
Mitchell McLaughlin, the party's general secretary, said hopefully the ard chomhairle would support it.
He said: "This obviously has been a very, very difficult two weeks since the Sinn Fein ard chomhairle on the 29th December which decided to move to the next Ard Fheis." "The difficulty has been caused by the failure of the DUP to step up to the plate."
For the motion to be passed by the 56-strong Ard Chomhairle two thirds support is required. It is being put forward despite the reluctance of the DUP to make a statement that it would share power with republicans - a move Mr Adams claimed had already been agreed.
The meeting at the Great Southern Hotel at Dublin Airport began at 1pm and is likely to run all day. Mr McLaughlin said people would recognise the move by Sinn Fein was a significant development given the difficulties created by others.
"I hope the ard chomhairle will endorse this, that we can create the necessary conditions and momentum, and hopefully create the atmosphere, that will encourage others that are hesitant or confused at this stage, to likewise work within the St Andrew's Agreement," he said.
Mr Adams yesterday claimed DUP leader Ian Paisley did not respond to republican moves towards an acceptance of policing with their own reassurances over power-sharing, Mr Adams said he would advise the executive to hold the ardfheis - but on a "different basis."
Mr Adams told The Irish Times: "My approach would be to say, 'Let's look at this in the round. The basis has been changed for the ardfheis motion but the need to call the ardfheis remains. Let's find if we can establish another basis on which to proceed.' "
Mr Adams yesterday accused the DUP leader of reneging on a deal which would have seen him use an agreed form of words in his New Year statement responding to the Sinn Féin's national executive decision.
The DUP denied yesterday that it had made any commitment - particularly on the issue of the transfer of policing and justice powers by May 2008.
"I am not in the business of saying one thing in private and another in public," Mr Paisley said. Despite his latest attack on the DUP, Mr Adams said he would be urging his national executive to judge everything in the round.
"In my presentation I will put to people that we still need civic policing, we still need to have an accountable police service and we still need to get the power-sharing institutions in place," he said.
"We cannot allow others to dictate the pace of change."
A senior DUP source said whatever Mr Adams put to the ardchomhairle today needed to be clearcut. "Anything short of that won't work," he said, a view generally held by the British and Irish governments.