The British and Irish governments are attempting to devise a tight common agenda for the Leeds Castle talks in Kent in the middle of this month which are aimed at ending the political logjam.
The governments are anxious to avoid peripheral matters clogging up the agenda, senior sources explained.
In the period ahead of the talks which run from September 16-18th, British and Irish ministers and senior officials are meeting the parties to try to agree a concise agenda for the Kent negotiations, which will be chaired by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair.
As Mr Ahern outlined on Tuesday and yesterday, he and Mr Blair want the focus on ending paramilitarism, decommissioning and demilitarisation, policing, a commitment to power-sharing government, and agreement to any potential alterations to the Belfast Agreement.
"It is important that we have a common agenda. We are not talking about agreement before Leeds Castle but it is important that when we get there we are dealing with a set, agreed list of major issues," said a London source. The degree of preparation work for the Leeds Castle talks intensified with the appearance at Castle Buildings, Stormont of Mr Blair's chief of staff, Mr Jonathan Powell, who held behind-the-scenes discussions with Sinn Féin and Alliance, and is also expected to meet the other parties.
Mr Powell's unannounced appearance was significant because he was a central official, together with senior Irish officials, in shaping the nature of previous key talks.
His talks coincided with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, holding discussions with the Northern parties at Parliament Buildings, Stormont.
For a deal to work, there must be agreement between Sinn Féin and the DUP. While Dr Paisley in hardline terms insisted there could be no deal without the IRA first disbanding, the Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams insisted his party was dedicated to securing a deal.
Mr Adams said it would be difficult to achieve a breakthrough without the DUP talking to Sinn Féin but nonetheless he believed agreement was possible at Leeds Castle. He said it was inevitable that the DUP eventually would talk but the problem was "what will happen in the meantime?"
"Whatever the DUP's stance, we, as everyone else who lives on this island, have the right to equality. We are at this with a good heart. We are not deflected and we know that Paisleyism represents that aspect of unionism which is against the type of changes which are required," added Mr Adams.
Ulster Unionist MLA Sir Reg Empey, who led a UUP delegation in the Stormont talks, said there would be no point going to Leeds Castle unless Mr Blair was satisfied there would be an end to paramilitarism.
"There is no point going over for a spin operation. There is no point going over for further play-acting. Everybody knows that the deal is that everyone who wants to enter into government has to be committed to exclusively peaceful means," he added.
"This could be done quickly but there are those in the DUP and Sinn Féin who would like to string this process out until the general election scheduled for next year," said Sir Reg.
The SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan warned that a conditional or fudged deal at Leeds Castle would not work. "If you do a deal that is so full of conditions, that you have an 'if' here and an 'if' there, then what you have is a very iffy deal."
