There is a heightening expectation in the United States administration that the IRA will carry out a significant act of completion to assist the restoration of devolution in Northern Ireland.
With President Bush's special envoy on Northern Ireland, Mr Richard Haass, engaging in another series of high-level political meetings in London, Dublin and Belfast, a senior US source said there was growing confidence that the IRA would deliver substantially.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow Mr Haass is holding a round of meetings with the Minister for Foreign Affairs; Mr Cowen, the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy; Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin, and the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble.
A London source said this round of meetings "is important", although no immediate breakthrough was expected to follow. A senior American source told The Irish Times yesterday of an increasing anticipation in Washington of major movement from the IRA in the coming weeks.
The US administration believed that rank-and-file republicans were signed up for an "act of completion" from the IRA, he said. "We believe the IRA has been working towards this move for quite a while now. For the past year there has been a recognition at grassroots level that the time is right for a move," he added.
Mr Haass in previous meetings with Sinn Féin in Washington and Belfast, made it starkly clear that the US administration effectively wanted the IRA to stand down. When last in Belfast in November, he said he wanted an end to all paramilitary "actions and military capabilities".
However, he could envisage the IRA in some other form or guise. "If organisations continue in a fundamentally different form for political purposes - social purposes - that to me is secondary," he said.
The period around St Patrick's Day is still being viewed in Dublin, London and Washington as the deadline for agreement.
Sources said progress was being made in the behind-the-scenes talks involving senior Irish, British, Sinn Féin and Ulster Unionist negotiators.
The next main public effort to drive forward towards a deal happens at Hillsborough Castle, Co Down, tomorrow week when the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, hold bilateral talks with the Northern parties.
Sources said the IRA was still refusing to define its interpretation of "acts of completion" while clearly signalling that it is prepared to move substantially in the context of Sinn Féin demands being met.
Sinn Féin MLA Mr Gerry Kelly, who led a party delegation in talks with the British-Irish Interparliamentary Group at Stormont yesterday, said Sinn Féin was entering "an intensive" period of discussions with the British government.
The British government by producing its plan for implementing outstanding elements of the agreement could have a positive impact on negotiations, he said.
The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, commenting on the loyalist feud, said: "These killings should focus all parties on the need to come together to ensure the full implementation of the Belfast Agreement and that we get the institutions up and running as soon as possible."
