The first meeting between Mr Tony Blair and Mr Gerry Adams now seems likely to be postponed until after next week's British Labour Party conference. Downing Street and the Northern Ireland Office have all but ruled out the possibility that the ground-breaking encounter between the British Prime Minister and the Sinn Fein president could take place this week, primarily because of continuing uncertainty about the attitude of the Ulster Unionist Party to the talks process after tomorrow's plenary session ,in which Mr David Trimble will "prosecute" his complaint against Sinn Fein's participation.
Dr Mo Mowlam, the Northern Ireland Secretary, is anxious that there should be no undue delay in staging the meeting between Mr Blair and Mr Adams.
???ein's endorsement of the Mitchell principles and formal entry last week into the talks process.
However, sources said last night the agenda for the coming week at Stormont almost inevitably meant the meeting would have to be delayed. Apart from Mr Trimble's bid to have Sinn Fein expelled from the talks, which the UUP accepts will be rejected, the British and Irish governments have still not secured UUP support for their procedural motion seeking to resolve the arms decommissioning issue and permit the start of the substantive three-strand negotiations.
When Mr Blair does finally meet Mr Adams it seems likely to be in the context of a series of meetings between the Prime Minister and party leaders at the Stormont talks venue.
The planned prime ministerial visit to Castle Buildings will be used to underscore Mr Blair's personal commitment to the talks process. It will also have the advantage of assuaging unionist hostility to a symbolically important meeting in 10 Downing Street and, if he wishes, spare Mr Blair the potential embarrassment still of a handshake with the Sinn Fein leader under the full media glare.
During the exchanges which preceded the reinstatement of the IRA ceasefire in July, the British government promised that meetings between the Prime Minister and Mr Adams would take place on the same basis as with other party leaders after Sinn Fein's admission to the talks process.
However, as Sinn Fein, the SDLP and Dublin grow increasingly anxious to secure the start of substantive negotiations, the overriding priority of both governments this week is to clear the remaining hurdles on decommissioning and secure agreement on the agenda for those negotiations.