The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, are to maintain contact with the Sinn Féin leader, Mr Gerry Adams, and the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, this weekend as they persist with efforts to break the political deadlock.
While the Assembly is to be formally dissolved at midnight tomorrow, Mr Ahern and Mr Blair and their senior officials are still striving to extract a form of words from republicans which would clearly state the IRA is ending paramilitary activity.
The two governments are still hoping to hear explicit responses to the three questions posed to the IRA by Mr Blair on Wednesday: is the IRA ending all activity? Will it commit itself to decommission all arms? If the Belfast Agreement is implemented in full, is the IRA war over?
Republicans reacted angrily to the questions, accusing Mr Blair of a breach of confidence, but the fact that all the principals remain so closely engaged indicates that the governments at least believe there is still some chance of a breakthrough.
Mr Adams and a number of Sinn Féin candidates in the Assembly elections, still scheduled for May 29th, are expected to be at Parliament Buildings, Stormont, tomorrow for the last day of the first Assembly.
Some senior Dublin and Ulster Unionist sources spoke last night of a possible new republican initiative this weekend. Were this to happen, the Sinn Féin gathering could be an opportunity for releasing details of any new development.
A Sinn Féin spokesman however said he was not aware of any impending initiative. "The way things are now, one phone call could change things radically but at the moment I am not expecting anything dramatic," he said.
While there is still a question mark over whether elections will take place on May 29th, British and Irish sources say the immediate emphasis must be on whether the deadlock can be broken to allow a poll that would elect politicians to a firmly re-established Executive and Assembly.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, are to meet at Stormont on Monday to take stock of developments and to try to chart a political route out of the logjam.
Mr Blair on Wednesday and Mr Murphy in a number of interviews since then cast some doubt on the elections proceeding by warning of the difficulties if it were not clear that an Executive would be formed after polling day.
At a press conference in Dublin yesterday, Mr Cowen said elections should proceed as planned, although preferably it should be clear that the Executive and Assembly would be formed after the successful candidates were returned. (In the current deadlock it seems certain that a power-sharing administration could not be established).
Said Mr Cowen, "The Irish Government's position is that we believe that that date is fixed, that the election should go ahead and obviously the best means by which that election campaign could be conducted would be to restore the Executive and the Assembly by way of finding an agreement prior to the elections.
"We maintain that position and the fact of the matter is, in any event, that the political and economic development of the country North and South must continue. It's best devised, it's best guaranteed by the restoration of the Executive but the Assembly election is fixed and we should proceed."
Last night the UUP again challenged the IRA to "end the fudge and double-speak and get on with the job of committing the IRA to history". Ulster Unionist MLA Mr Fred Cobain said republicans must show that they are willing "to take their place as democrats alongside the rest of us who don't have private armies to do their bidding".
He added: "Can our own government and others seriously contemplate concessions to a few hundred hoods who continue to hold democracy to ransom? If the answer to that question is 'yes' then elections are merely academic with the outcome an irrelevance."
Former SDLP minister Dr Seán Farren said last night: "Clear indications that paramilitaries are going to 'go away' are essential if the road to the exclusively democratic and peaceful society envisaged in the Good Friday agreement is, in fact, to be the road ahead. But also essential, if that road is to be fully democratic, are clear indications from pro-agreement parties of their full commitment to working all aspects of the agreement."
