The Government was tonight pushing for an international probe into the killing last week of Irishman Mike Dwyer.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Michael Martin said he wanted a panel, with an Irish person on it, to investigate the incident.
"We have noted that the president himself has suggested an international panel of inquiry be established to facilitate an investigation into what exactly happened in relation to this incident," he said.
"There is a precedent for that and that is something that we would be pushing for at this stage. The circumstances are unclear.
"What the Dwyer family deserve is for the full facts to be brought out. They deserve full disclosure of everything that happened.
"We will be seeking that if such a panel emerges that there will be an Irish person put on."
Department of Foreign Affairs representatives will meet Bolivian officials in the capital La Paz today to underline the Irish Government's concern.
Derek Lambe, a second secretary from the Irish Embassy in Argentina, and Ireland's honorary consul in Bolivia Peter O'Toole will also impress upon Bolivian justice ministry officials the need for the full facts of the case to be established.
Bolivian president Evo Morales has said he would welcome an international investigation into the 24-year-old's death.
Speaking over the weekend, Mr Morales said there was nothing to hide, and invited organisations to come and investigate.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dick Roche said there was nothing to suggest Mr Dwyer was involved in any criminality.
"My understanding is that Mr Dwyer had absolutely no form of record from any Garda source that would have suggested that he had any misbehaviour, or that he had any record," Mr Roche said.
The body of Mr Dwyer from near Ballinderry, Co Tipperary, was released by the Bolivians yesterday. It will be flown home for burial mid-week at the earliest, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs.
In a statement this morning, Mr Dwyer's family said they were "relieved and comforted by the fact that Michael's body is now in the hands of Irish authorities, awaiting final documentation for repatriation."
The family said they were focusing on getting their son back home and thanked officials at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Irish officials in Bolivia and Argentina who had been of great support to them at a difficult
time.
The family appealed for privacy and asked members of the media not contact them directly or to visit the family home.
Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman Billy Timmins extended the party's sympathy to Mr Dwyer's family and friends.
"It is important that the Irish Authorities establish, as quickly as possible, the circumstances surrounding the shooting. Every effort should also be made to repatriate the Michael's remains and his family should be afforded the privacy they have requested," he said.
The Bolivian authorities have said Mr Dwyer was among a group of foreign mercenaries planning to kill public figures, including President Eva Morales. Two of the other alleged mercenaries were also killed last Thursday with Mr Dwyer while two others were arrested. The police put a cache of weapons on display saying they were owned by the men.
Initial local media reports suggested Mr Dwyer and the other men were shot dead by Bolivian police during a 30-minute gunfight at a hotel in Santa Cruz in the early hours of last Thursday.
Photographs have emerged of Mr Dwyer's body which show him dressed in his underwear, suggesting that he may have been in bed at the time.
A computer found at the hotel reportedly lists five people who were to be targeted by the alleged mercenaries. However, President Morales's name was not on the list while that of a senior opposition politician was. This is despite Mr Morales claiming that the men were in Bolivia to kill him and linking the plan to his political opponents.
The Irish officials meeting their Bolivian counterparts today in La Paz will seek evidence that Mr Dwyer was armed and that he engaged the police in a gun battle with the other men, as has been suggested.
The bodies of Mr Dwyer and the other men were wrapped in black plastic bags and taken to a morgue on the back of a pick-up truck. A photograph of one of the bodies shows his hands are tied.
The Bolivian authorities have claimed one of the dead men, Eduardo Rozsa Flores, was the leader of the alleged plot. The Irish Timesunderstands Mr Dwyer was working for Mr Flores as a security guard.
The Irishman graduated from Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology last summer. He had worked as a security guard for a Galway firm while in college and began working for them full-time after graduation. He went to Bolivia on a three-month training course last November.
It appears he met Mr Flores in January and was offered work by him. Mr Dwyer's family are said to be keen to find out the nature of Mr Flores's firm's work and what Mr Dwyer knew about it. A family spokesman said they had many unanswered questions.
Mr Flores was a journalist born in Bolivia with Croatian nationality who had fought in the Balkan wars.
Zoltan Brady, editor of a magazine for which Mr Flores wrote in Hungary, said he had gone to Bolivia last spring "to fight against its communist government" and for the independence of the province of Santa Cruz. He dismissed suggestions Mr Flores was a hired assassin.