Sinn Féin activists are gathering in Dublin ahead of this evening's historical vote on whether to accept the legitimacy of the PSNI - a move that should pave the way for revived power-sharing in the six counties.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams is expected to win backing from the conference, of whom some 900 are eligible to vote for a leadership motion offering conditional support to the Police Service of Northern Ireland.
Mr Adams has maneuvered his party close to accepting the police as part of a wider effort to forge a coalition with the Democratic Unionists.
Democratic Unionist leader Ian Paisley insists he won't form a Cabinet unless Sinn Fein endorsres the predominantly Protestant police force.
Catholic numbers in in the police force has increased from 8 per cent to 20 per cent — but police still cannot live or operate normally today in Sinn Fein power bases.
To be passed, today's motion requires at least 50 per cent support from voting delegates. But Adams and other senior Sinn Fein figures are publicly confident of winning a much higher level of backing.
The executive's motion commits Sinn Fein to begin supporting the police only after power-sharing is revived - only if the Democratic Unionists agree to transfer control of Northern Ireland's justice system, including the police, from Britain to local hands by May 2008.
The motion specifies that Sinn Fein will open normal relations with police "only when the power-sharing institutions are established" and Sinn Fein leaders are "satisfied that policing and justice powers will be transferred."
Such conditions are likely to lead to further protracted arguments with their would-be government partners in the Democratic Unionists.
Paisley says his party will make no commitments on dates to share power, or to permit control of police to be transferred to the coalition, until Protestants receive evidence of real cooperation with the police on the ground in Sinn Fein-controlled areas.