President George W. Bush's special envoy on Northern Ireland, Mr Richard Haass, is to meet the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, in Washington next week as politicians try to devise a means of restoring devolution.
This encounter will form part of a series of bilateral meetings all through next week involving senior Irish, British and US administration figures as well as politicians in favour of and opposed to the Belfast Agreement.
On the basis of these meetings, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the new Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, will meet in Dublin next Wednesday to review the suspension of the agreement and decide what political course to take next.
Sinn Féin's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, met Mr Haass in Washington in recent weeks and London is attaching some importance to next week's Adams/Haass meeting.
Previously, Mr Haass has exerted pressure on both the IRA and Sinn Féin to take action to ensure the continuation of the peace process. "Washington has influence here, and Martin McGuinness's and Gerry Adams's meetings with Richard Haass have got to be of significance," a London source said.
The overall political expectation, however, is that while some movement may be possible, it will take a considerable time to determine whether the deadlock can be broken.
The British and Irish governments believe that the IRA's decision to withdraw from contact with Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body is an early act of the strategic manoeuvring which can be expected from the parties in the weeks and months ahead. The two governments are anticipating initial hardline positions from all the main protagonists.
Mr Adams, who led a Sinn Féin delegation which included Mr McGuinness in talks with the Northern Secretary, Mr Murphy, at Castle Buildings in Stormont yesterday evening, said that he had no comment to make about the IRA statement.
He said that the British government was responsible for suspending the institutions and he did not believe that it had a plan to reactivate them. By collapsing the institutions, the British government was playing into the hands of such anti-agreement loyalist paramilitaries as the UDA, he added.
Mr Adams said that there was a particular onus on the British government to restore the institutions and fully implement the Belfast Agreement.
"There is a way forward in terms of this process, but it isn't by exchanging soundbites. It is about the British government facing up to its responsibilities," Mr Adams said.
It was important to remember that the Irish and British governments were equal partners in the Belfast Agreement, which was an international treaty. "Both governments have to play their role in this. Can it be sorted out? Of course it can be sorted out," he added.
Mr Adams was also critical of the Ulster Unionist Party's demand that the IRA should disband and disarm. "The bar has been set very high by unionism, too high in my view," he said.
Mr Billy Hutchinson, of the Progressive Unionist Party, which also met Mr Murphy at Stormont, said that there was a lack of public confidence in the political process and a great degree of mutual distrust between Sinn Féin and the unionist and loyalist parties.
The parties had to sort out their own problems and do so "not by running to Paul Murphy or the Taoiseach". As a politician with links to the UVF and the Red Hand Commando, Mr Hutchinson was asked whether loyalist paramilitaries could make the same move as the IRA was being asked to make, a full transition from paramilitarism to politics. "We are quite prepared to try to move in a particular way that brings peace to this country," he replied.
The UUP and SDLP are among the parties due to meet Mr Murphy today. The DUP is scheduled to meet him on Monday.
