BRITISH government officials and Sinn Fein representatives are likely to meet this week, possibly as early as tomorrow, in the wake of the authorisation of such a meeting by the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, last Friday.
Irish Government sources remain cautious about the prospects for a new IRA ceasefire after Saturday's meeting between Government officials and Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Pat Doherty, of Sinn Fein. The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, described the meeting as "useful", but would not be drawn on his level of optimism about a possible new ceasefire.
The talks are understood to have covered Sinn Fein's demand that a ceasefire would bring the party into political talks within a fixed timeframe instead of leading to open ended discussions about the decommissioning of paramilitary weapons. No further meeting is planned, nor is one ruled out, according to a Government source.
Having given a negative initial response to Mr Blair's speech on Friday, Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness said yesterday that his offer of talks could put the peace process "back on track". In an interview on Sunday With Adam Boulton on Sky News, Mr McGuinness indicated that, if inclusive talks without unnecessary preconditions were on offer, a new cessation would follow. "We need to know that decommissioning isn't going to be a blockage to substantive negotiations", he added.
Mr McGuinness repeated the demands Sinn Fein wants met before seeking a new ceasefire from the IRA: a timeframe of six to nine months for the talks; confidence building measures, such as movement on prisoners; and an assurance that inclusive talks would not become a "decommissioning conference".
Meanwhile, the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said that all preconditions to Sinn Fein entering talks had been removed. Any matters of clarification could be settled in the talks with officials.
Mr Hume maintained that the door had been "opened for peace". He called on the IRA to declare an unequivocal and absolute ceasefire immediately and said that Sinn Fein should commit itself to the Mitchell principles on democracy and nonviolence.
Meanwhile, it emerged last night that talks chaired by Mr Hume are to take place between the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition in what the SDLP leader described as a "significant breakthrough" on Drumcree.
The surprise move follows an hour long meeting between Mr John Hume and the Grand Master of the Orange Order, Mr Robert Saulters, last Thursday, during which it is understood they discussed the wideranging implications of the marching season.
Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, said: "This is what we have been looking for the past two years. We will be going into this meeting hoping to get a permanent resolution to the problem in Portadown."
Mr Adams welcomed the planned meeting, saying that dialogue was the way to "avoid a Drumcree mark three".
Sinn Fein's two MPs, Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness, will today attempt to obtain House of Commons facilities despite the ruling by the Commons Speaker, Ms Betty Boothroyd, that they must first take the oath of allegiance. They will go to Westminster seeking the same facilities accorded to MPs who take the oath of allegiance to the British monarch. Should they be denied these, the party might initiate a legal case in London, and possibly Europe, according to a Sinn Fein spokesman.
In a separate development it is understood that the Clinton administration has asked the British government for a briefing on the situation in the North.