A war of words on decommissioning has erupted between the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, and the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, ahead of today's meeting of party leaders at Stormont to discuss the resumption of the Northern Ireland Assembly.
The stand-off developed over the weekend when Mr Trimble reiterated his stance that decommissioning of IRA weapons was essential before his party could enter government with Sinn Fein.
Mr Adams hit back in a prepared statement and through media interviews, asserting very strongly that there was nothing in the terms of the Belfast Agreement to exclude the immediate establishment of a Northern Executive which would include Sinn Fein ministers as of right.
However, the exchanges between the two men in print and over the airwaves distracted attention from the major steps they were both preparing to take this week.
In his capacity as First Minister, Mr Trimble has invited Sinn Fein to a "round-table" meeting in his office at Stormont at noon today to discuss the arrangements for the resumption of the Northern Ireland Assembly next Monday.
A smaller and more significant meeting will also be held, probably tomorrow, at which Mr Trimble and Mr Adams will hold face-to-face discussions on issues connected with the Assembly.
Mr Trimble informed the Ulster Unionist Party executive at its regular meeting in Belfast on Saturday that he was proposing to meet Mr Adams face-to-face. There were some dissenting voices, but no widespread opposition, and the tenor of the meeting was positive from Mr Trimble's viewpoint.
There was some alarm in republican circles at reports that President Clinton and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, had informed the US Congress delegation at Armagh last Thursday of their desire to see prompt IRA decommissioning in return for the scaling-down of the British army presence in the North.
When asked yesterday about reports of the meeting, the Sinn Fein president told reporters in Belfast that he would not place "too much importance" on them.
Peace process insiders agreed, saying that the audience the Prime Minister was addressing should be taken into account. Mr Blair was sending a message to Irish-America that the decommissioning issue could not be sidelined indefinitely. At some point there would have to be a process which would involve decommissioning as one of its elements, but the precise timing of this would be subject to negotiation.
The main point, insiders said, was that significant political progress had been made in the past week, with conciliatory gestures from Sinn Fein and a response from Mr Trimble.
The Orange Order announced last night that it was postponing a petition in support of the right of its members to march along the Garvaghy Road. This was being done as a "gesture of goodwill and peaceful intent" following the weekend violence in Portadown. The petition was to have been launched this morning in Belfast, but in a statement the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland said that the "despicable behaviour" on the streets of Portadown had "sullied the good name of Protestantism and played into the hands of the enemies of the legitimate Ulster loyalist cause".
Meanwhile, over a dozen paramilitary prisoners are due to be released from the Maze Prison this week under the early release scheme provided for in the Belfast Agreement. About 200 prisoners are likely to be free by Christmas.
* A retired businessman became the 29th victim of the Omagh bombing when he died in Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital on Saturday. Mr Sean McGrath (61) had been in a critical condition since the explosion three weeks ago.