The Government has moved to step up international pressure on the British authorities to hold a judicial inquiry into the murder of the Belfast solicitor, Mr Pat Finucane, writes Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter.
In a speech to an influential body of lawyers in the US, the Attorney General, Mr Rory Brady SC, said it would be "inconceivable" that the British government would not initiate a judicial inquiry into the murder.
Mr Brady said last night that there was a "well-based" suspicion that agents of the British state had colluded with the loyalist paramilitaries who shot Mr Finucane in front of his family in 1989.
The Attorney General was addressing the Bar Association of Washington DC on "developments in the legal profession in Ireland".
His remarks came as efforts intensify to agree a date for elections this autumn to the Northern Ireland Assembly and the resumption of power-sharing.
The speech came only days after a meeting in Chequers between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair.
The Government has made repeated calls for a public inquiry into the murder.
Repeating that stance in Washington is an obvious move to increase pressure on the British government for a positive response.
Mr Brady referred to a review of the Finucane case by the Canadian judge, Mr Justice Cory, who examining a report into collusion by Sir John Stevens, Britain's most senior police officer.
The Stevens inquiry uncovered evidence of the involvement of state agents in murder and the obstruction of justice.
But the British government is awaiting the report by Mr Justice Cory, who has been asked to look at the Finucane case and others "in terms of identifying methods of investigating serious killings".
Mr Brady said it was open to Mr Justice Cory to recommend a public judicial inquiry into the Finucane murder but said that "time will tell what his recommendation is in this regard".
He added: "It seems to me, however, that it would be inconceivable that a democratic government would not, in the circumstances of Pat Finucane's murder, move to institute a public judicial inquiry."
Mr Brady said Mr Finucane represented nationalist and loyalist prisoners.
"Like any lawyer he represented his client regardless of their political views or creeds.
"There is well-based suspicion of involvement of the state in this murder."