The Taoiseach will meet the British Prime Minister in London next Tuesday to discuss the threat to the Belfast Agreement, as Mr David Trimble faces the growing prospect of a challenge to his authority within his party.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, meanwhile called on nationalists not to demand the full implementation of the Patten report.
Government sources in Dublin said they understood that Mr Trimble's opponents in the UUP might call a special meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council to challenge his authority. Conscious of the possible threat to the UUP leader, Mr Mandelson maintained that nationalists had got "95 per cent of what they want in Patten", and said this had been accepted by Senator Ted Kennedy. "To insist on 100 per cent but in the process lose the unionists in this would be a very Pyrrhic victory indeed," he told RTE's Morning Ireland programme.
Irish and British officials have held intensive discussions in the past few days, focusing on police reform, demilitarisation and decommissioning.