The Rev Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness will meet British Chancellor Gordon Brown today in their first engagement outside the North as leaders of the incoming power-sharing executive.
The Democratic Unionist leader and the Sinn Féin MP, who will officially become First and Deputy First Minister at Stormont next Tuesday, will meet the Chancellor of the Exchequer in Edinburgh to urge him to provide a more generous package of funds for the new devolved government.
But with Scots and Welsh voters going to the polls today, Stormont sources were playing down the prospects of the Chancellor signing off a radical economic package for the North.
In March, Mr Brown announced he would provide an extra £1 billion on top of £35 billion the British government had already pledged over the next four years to the new Stormont government.
However business leaders in the North accused Mr Brown of producing little in the way of new money in his revised offer to the four parties forming the new executive.
They observed the extra £1 billion included £400 million already announced by Minister for Finance Minister Brian Cowen for infrastructural projects in the North that could benefit both parts of the island.
The chancellor also announced a retail consortium agreement had been signed with major retail chains to create over 5,000 jobs in Northern Ireland over the next few years.
Although he stopped short of granting demands for corporation tax levels in the North to be slashed to 12.5 per cent, he agreed to a review of the different tax rates.
PA