Northern Secretary Peter Hain is to establish a "restoration committee" of Assembly members to identify problems barring the return of devolution.
Mr Hain made the announcement yesterday after earlier appearing to water down a more wide-ranging proposal in the face of opposition from DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley, thus angering the SDLP.
Mr Hain made it clear yesterday the new 14-member committee would merely identify issues, not permit negotiations around them. However, he warned that the public would draw its own conclusions about the prospects of progress if any of the parties refused to take up the invitation.
Mr Hain wants confirmation of attendance by next Tuesday. Sinn Féin and the DUP have yet to announce if they will nominate representatives.
The Northern Ireland Office said the committee's work would help set the agenda for more talks involving Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Prime Minister Tony Blair when they return to Belfast late next month.
However, The Irish Times has learned that Mr Hain has been warned by the SDLP that the British government had to "stand up to Paisley" or risk alienating all other parties and hastening a walkout from the restored Assembly by that party and, possibly, the Ulster Unionists.
The Northern Secretary was told during two "robust" meetings at Westminster that the more the British government was seen to change policy in the face of DUP pressure, the more the other parties were "excluded".
Fresh doubt about the continuance of the restored Assembly emerged last night. It will not sit next Monday because of the UK bank holiday and the Westminster recess. The business committee of members is to meet next Tuesday but there will be no plenary session. Business for the following week, if any, has yet to be outlined by Mr Hain.
Dublin sources refused to be drawn into speculation about anything other than the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement.
Referring only indirectly to Mr Hain's "restoration committee", a spokesman for Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said: "The Assembly is first and foremost an opportunity for the parties in Northern Ireland to engage in face-to- face discussions and to engage directly with each other. No issue is more important than the restoration of fully accountable institutions of government for Northern Ireland."
He continued: "We want the parties to take this forward with all possible speed and to use all the available channels to facilitate that process. The Government hopes that all political parties will demonstrate the political will and leadership needed to carry this work forward without delay."
Stormont sources insisted the proposed committee would make a valuable contribution to efforts to restore devolution.
"We think it's important," said a reliable source. Asked what the committee could achieve since the parties were well aware of the difficulties standing in the way of devolution, The Irish Times was told: "Everyone knows their own issues." The committee might allow for a "scoping role", he said - understood to mean the placing of contentious issues in a context which the two premiers can address with the parties next month.
A Sinn Féin document, drawn up for a meeting with US special envoy Mitchell Reiss last week and obtained by the BBC, refers to the "restoration committee" providing cover for DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson to engage directly with Sinn Féin.
It was understood last night that the DUP will send middle-ranking nominees to the committee for its first meeting scheduled for June 6th.