Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams will head for the United States today as efforts continue to restore Northern Ireland power-sharing government.
The West Belfast MP is flying to New York for a series of fundraising events for his party and to meet key Irish-American figures and politicians to brief them on the political process.
Mr Adams will be in the United States for a week and has arranged talks with President George Bush's special envoy on Northern Ireland issues, Mr Mitchell Reiss. Among the cities he will visit will be Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC.
A Sinn Féin source said visits would enable the party to touch base with Democrats and Republicans following the US presidential and Congressional elections.
"We will be informing people on where we are at in the current negotiations," a source said. "We will also be giving them a sense of where the current difficulties lie."
Efforts to revive Northern Ireland Assembly and power-sharing executive have stumbled despite claims by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that the IRA is prepared to undertake ground making moves on disarmament and its own future.
Mr Ahern told the Dáil yesterday the Government were giving Northern Ireland parties until November 26th to reach agreement.
However, he also expressed concern that some parties were trying to drag talks out in the hope that a deal could only be struck on the other side of the next Westminster election.