The Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC), which will adjudicate on whether the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries have halted paramilitary activity, met for the first time yesterday as strenuous efforts continued to break the political deadlock.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, meet in London this morning to determine whether or not Assembly elections should be called for mid-November.
If elections are triggered, the IRA is expected to carry out a third and more credible act of decommissioning and to provide some form of statement indicating that it would, could or might cease paramilitary activity.
As yet, there are no indications however that the IRA would sign up to paragraph 13 of the joint declaration which calls on the IRA to clearly state it will end activities such as weapons procurement, targeting, "punishment" attacks, intelligence gathering, exiling, etc.
Regardless of whether the IRA provides the clarity about its future intentions required by the British and Irish governments, the Independent Monitoring Commission will have a crucial role in decreeing whether the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries have ceased such activity.
The four-member IMC is still in shadow form as it has not yet been formally constituted by the two governments. The four members held a preliminary meeting in Belfast yesterday to consider how they would operate in the future.
The members - Lord Alderdice, speaker of the suspended Assembly; Mr Joe Brosnan, former secretary general of the Department of Justice in the South; Mr John Grieve, former deputy assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police and Mr Dick Kerr, a former director general of the CIA - posed for a photocall yesterday, but took no questions from reporters.
The IMC will also adjudicate on whether the British government is carrying out any programme of demilitarisation that it might agree to.
Its British and Northern Irish members, Mr Grieve and Lord Alderdice, will also rule on whether politicians and executive ministers are honouring their pledges of office, should the Assembly and executive be restored. Based on the terms under which the IMC was established, Mr Brosnan and Mr Kerr will have no function in Strand One matters solely relating to internal Northern Ireland affairs.
The IMC will consult with British and Irish politicians and with the security forces in Britain and Ireland as it goes about its business. It may also open up a website to allow members of the public pass on information about alleged paramilitary activity. It will have offices in Belfast and Dublin.
