The British and Irish governments still believe there is no viable alternative to sanctions against parties in breach of the Belfast Agreement despite the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, again insisting such penalties would be a "deal-breaker".
Mr Adams is to meet the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, in Dublin on Monday, while on the same day in Dublin the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, will hold talks with the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, as efforts continue to prepare the ground for presentation of the British and Irish governments' package to restore the Executive and Assembly.
The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, yesterday called on the IRA to demonstrate that its war is over.
"Republicans have been given an extra four weeks to do what we all know is necessary. We hope they do it, and we hope that clears the way for the Prime Minister to come back in April as he said he would," he said.
Mr Adams, however, repeated yesterday that Sinn Féin was vehemently opposed to the Irish and British proposal to establish an international monitoring body comprising Irish, Northern Irish, British and US members, to deal with what sanctions should be imposed against parties that failed to meet their requirements under the agreement.
Mr Ahern and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, are due back in Northern Ireland next month to lay before the parties their blueprint for restoring devolution.
Asked was Sinn Féin still holding to its position that the sanctions element of the package was a "deal-breaker", Mr Adams replied, "Absolutely."
He said he had made this point very clear to the British and Irish governments and the US administration while on his recent St Patrick's week visit to the US.
He said Sinn Féin was against anyone, particularly governments, stepping outside the terms of the Good Friday agreement.
"The governments cannot do a deal unless they have all of the parties on board, and they cannot get all the parties on board by going outside the terms of the agreement at the whim of one of the parties."
The issue of sanctions was still "work in progress" and Sinn Féin hoped to change the governments' position on the matter, Mr Adams said.
Senior Dublin and London sources, however, contended yesterday that the independent international monitoring dimension to the matter of penalties ensured that the issue could not be abused by unionist or other parties.
In relation to the Sinn Féin ard-fheis next weekend Mr Adams said he understood there were some motions hostile and some motions supportive of Sinn Féin joining the Policing Board. Without major progress between now and the ardfheis Mr Adams said he had no intention of bringing forward a motion to join the board at the ardfheis. "The party would require a special ard-fheis to deal with that issue," he said.
Mr Adams rejected some claims that considering the violent campaign of the IRA it was hypocritical of Sinn Féin to oppose the war on Iraq.
"You can't on one hand support a peace process here, and on the other turn a blind eye to what is happening in other parts of the world," he said.
Mr Adams was in west Belfast yesterday to launch a fund-raising scheme to build 16 new Irish-language schools in Northern Ireland. At present 3,000 pupils attend Irish-language schools. Mr Adams said if 16 schools were created it would establish the "critical mass" to solidify usage of Irish in Northern Ireland.
