The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, is to meet the leader of the Progressive Unionist Party, Mr David Ervine, in Belfast tomorrow in an attempt to persuade him that the loyalist group should remain in the Stormont talks process.
Mr Andrews last night said he would address with Mr Ervine some of the PUP's concerns, most particularly the prisoners issue. He wished to see this matter addressed "even-handedly", adding that it was a matter for the British government how it would handle the matter of loyalist prisoners. However, Mr Andrews said he wished to see this issue "accelerated".
The Minister had pledged before Christmas to meet the fringe loyalist parties to discuss their dissatisfaction with the Government's handling of the peace process.
The Progressive Unionists are understood to have been particularly aggrieved that they were not informed in advance of the Government's plan to release a number of republican prisoners.
Government sources meanwhile say that, in spite of the tensions arising from the murder of the loyalist leader Billy Wright in prison after Christmas, they are still optimistic that the peace process can survive.
Urging the Taoiseach to convene a "round-table meeting" of party leaders in the Dail to consider the "current crisis" in the peace process, the Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, said there was a real danger that unless urgent action was taken, the whole process could spin out of control. It could "lead to disaster for the people of this island", he warned.
"The decision of the UDA and UFF prisoners to withhold their support for the peace process is just the latest of a series of setbacks that have been experienced over recent weeks," he said.
If the Government was seen as the protector, sponsor and promoter of Northern nationalism alone, while the British government was expected to remain neutral, it would inevitably lead to a sense of alienation and fear among unionists, Mr De Rossa said.