Intense efforts to resolve the deadlock in the peace process will resume this week involving the British Prime Minister, the Taoiseach and the main Northern parties supporting the Belfast Agreement.
Mr Blair and Mr Ahern are expected to chair two or more sessions of talks in the coming fortnight. The possibility of a session at Downing Street tomorrow has been mooted, and senior sources also said the Prime Minister had set Friday aside for discussions.
Sinn Fein has proposed a number of ideas to overcome the impasse. While the party has refused to reveal details it is understood a more proactive role for Gen John de Chastelain is central to its proposals.
However, the republicans do not envisage that the general will be in a position in the short term to report that IRA weapons have been decommissioned. They feel, however, that having been in cordial consultation with Mr Martin McGuinness over a considerable period, the general should be in a position to report, for example, that Sinn Fein is fulfilling its obligation under the terms of the agreement to "work constructively and in good faith" with him on decommissioning. Senior republican sources said last night that Sinn Fein was prepared to offer significant forms of words on decommissioning by way of reassurance to Mr David Trimble and the Ulster Unionist Party.
Until now, the UUP has insisted on the disposal of weapons rather than any verbal formula, and there have been no public indications of any change in the party's position.
A further meeting of the UUP and Sinn Fein is scheduled for Stormont this morning. While the republicans are expected to press the case for dropping decommissioning as a precondition for their entry to government, there is also likely to be pressure from the unionists for a gesture from the republican side to promote what is usually known in the peace process as confidence-building.
Political insiders were attaching different degrees of significance to comments made by Mr Blair in an interview with the German magazine Focus today and reported in yesterday's Sunday Times. The Prime Minister said decommissioning was "an issue more of symbolism and trust than it is to do with the foundations of the agreement".
While nationalist sources regarded Mr Blair's comments as an indication that London now accepted decommissioning was not a precondition of Sinn Fein participation in government, sources close to unionist thinking said this was not the case and the real issue was whether the republican movement was prepared to respond to the new flexibility on weapons shown by the UUP during the Hillsborough talks.
Political sources in Dublin said Mr Blair's words were "a very public softening of his line". However, Dublin believed Mr Trimble had to get "something" from the republicans which he could "sell" to his party. Words from Sinn Fein could be important, depending on "how good those words are".