SDLP leader Mark Durkan is expected to use his party's address to his annual conference to announce the establishment of a new group examining all-Ireland political links.
The Irish Timesunderstands such a new body will liaise with the Fianna Fáil group, headed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern, which is examining an all-Ireland role for his party. Mr Ahern visits the conference later today.
Mr Durkan will restate his claim that politics throughout Ireland was transformed by the Belfast Agreement and that the SDLP would seek to develop new contacts with southern parties, including Fianna Fáil.
The party deputy leader Alasdair McDonnell set the tone for his party's annual conference last night with a pointed attack on the DUP and Sinn Féin's performance in the Stormont Executive.
Dr McDonnell accused the leading unionist and nationalist parties of failing to deliver, and pledged to restore the SDLP to a position of prominence in Irish politics. Referring to the disappointing result for his party at the last Assembly election, in which the party lost two seats, he praised the work of party members in "standing up to make a statement that had to be made".
"You said that you weren't content to hand this place over to Paisley and the Provos," he said.
He told conference there was still a place for nationalist politics based on respect and tolerance, and that the voices of decent, hard-working families should be heard.
The Assembly election result meant the SDLP was entitled only to one minister. "Many people, including some within the party, wondered how we were going to make any kind of real difference with just one Minister at the table," he said. "They underestimated Margaret Ritchie."
Referring to the strength of Sinn Féin and its position at the head of the devolved administration, he asked: "what are they doing with it?"
"We have watched while every difficult decision they have faced has been fudged or ignored, except water charges, of course, which Conor Murphy embraced as soon as he had the chance."
He also criticised what he called the failure of the main unionist and nationalist parties to curb the influence of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
"We have watched as Sinn Féin allows Peter Robinson to continue his prime minister Peter act, with the Deputy First Minister reduced to the role of photo prop alongside his new pal Big Ian." He accused Sinn Féin and the DUP of failing to make a clean break from the direct rule past.
"Much of what Peter Robinson presented a fortnight ago could have been delivered by a direct rule minister without a second's thought." He claimed that other parties had finally accepted the SDLP's "long-standing policy" of a harmonised corporation tax rate across the whole of Ireland.