The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, will meet the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, at Downing Street later today to seek "clarification" on outstanding issues arising from the Belfast Agreement, including constitutional matters, the release of prisoners and the presence of the RUC and the British army in nationalist areas.
Mr Adams and Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, Mr Martin McGuinness, will brief Mr Blair and the Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, on the party's consultation process on the agreement, highlighting the views and concerns of party members about the make-up of a new Assembly.
Mr Adams will tell Mr Blair the agreement must bring about real changes in the lives of nationalists and that central to that change must be the withdrawal of the RUC, the British army and the Royal Irish Regiment from nationalist areas.
Downing Street yesterday refused to be drawn on the areas of discussion but the increase in sectarian murders and growing speculation over Sinn Fein's role in a future executive committee of the Assembly without movement on decommissioning are likely to be on the agenda.
A Sinn Fein spokesman, Mr Richard McAuley, insisted yesterday there was no linkage between decommissioning and membership of the Assembly in the Belfast Agreement and that the issue was being raised as an obstacle to finding areas of agreement between political parties.
On the role of the security forces, Mr McAuley said the government must address the issue as a matter of urgency. He expressed disappointment that an Irish-language school in west Belfast had failed to secure government funding. "It's as if nothing has changed. It is a matter of no more than a simple instruction from Mr Blair or the security personnel in Northern Ireland to bring about these changes," Mr McAuley said.
Sinn Fein also dismissed reports that Dr Mowlam had hinted to party delegates that the home of a party negotiator, Mr Gerry Kelly , had been bugged. A report in yesterday's Sunday Life claimed Mr Kelly's house had been bugged for three years from 1994, and that the listening devices were successful in monitoring sensitive discussions.
Mr McAuley said the bugs were discovered in the house of a relative of Mr Kelly and not at Mr Kelly's home. The party regarded the bugs as a demonstration of bad faith at a time when political negotiations were under way. Initial reports indicated the bugs were planted before the IRA's 1994 ceasefire.
Mr McAuley said Sinn Fein did not want the issue to become a distraction when there were bigger issues at stake.
The leaders of the North's largest two unionist parties may confront each other in a live TV debate on the Belfast Agreement this week. The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, is said to be considering an invitation from Ulster Television to argue the pros and cons of the agreement with the Rev Ian Paisley this Thursday.