The British Prime Ministers will receive a joint delegation from the two small loyalist parties the Ulster Democratic Party and the Progressive Unionist Party at Downing Street today.
It will be the first time Mr Major has met the UDP and PUP, which reflect the political thinking of the UDA and the UVF respectively, and the first time he has met representatives from any paramilitary linked parties in Northern Ireland.
The UDP will be represented by party leader Mr Gary McMichael and Mr John White and the PUP by the former Belfast Lord Mayor, Mr Hugh Smyth and Mr David Ervine. Both Mr Ervine and Mr White have served sentences for paramilitary offences, the latter for the double killing of an SDLP senator and his companion in 1973.
The meeting is taking place against a background of growing pressures within both the UDA and the UVF for a return to violence. Since the Drumcree standoff, leaders of the two loyalist parties have expressed strong concern about the fragility of the loyalist ceasefire, which has held since October 1994 despite the end of the IRA cessation five and a half months ago.
The meeting is part of a series of consultations with the Northern parties being undertaken by Mr Major to assess political opinion and prospects following the violence before and after Drumcree.
The UDP leader, Mr Gary McMichael, said yesterday that he would be using the meeting to voice the concerns within the loyalist community.
"I'll be saying that there is a need to put the process back on the rails", Mr McMichael said. "There is a need to crack down on the IRA and to eliminate the threat of a return to republican violence in Northern Ireland.
"I welcome the fact that the Prime Minister has finally acknowledged the central role which the UDP has played and continues to play in this process."
Meanwhile, a de facto plenary session of the peace talks will take place at Castle Buildings, Stormont, today and British and Irish government representatives are, expected to seek agreement by all, the participants to bypass the detailed procedural wrangle which has occupied them for the past five weeks.
While the talks have not yet even reached agreement on a formal agenda, the situation in the North has outstripped them and brought into question their immediate relevance.
Both governments have urged that real negotiations should begin quickly so that the political process can be seen to have regained primacy after the violence of the Drumcree crisis.
The independent chairman, Senator George Mitchell, is expected to circulate a position paper to the participants today. In the absence of the Tanaiste Mr Spring, who has travelled to Asia the Irish delegation will consist of other senior Ministers, including the Minister for Justice Mrs Owen.
The SDLP is seeking a redefinition of the purpose and aims of the talks and will support attempts to move the process towards substantive negotiations between the parties.
However, the unionist parties have indicated that if this is to happen, the SDLP and the Irish Government must indicate that they are prepared to compromise on their stance that the original ground rules still apply.
The DUP secretary, Mr Nigel Dodds, said yesterday there would be little progress on getting agreed procedures for the talks "if the Dublin Government and the SDLP continue to refuse to countenance the slightest change in the status of the ground rules which they view as having a supreme and over arching pre eminence."
He said in a statement: "These ground rules, if accepted, would corral unionists within the parameters of the Framework Document and set us on the road to a totally unacceptable predetermined outcome."
The difficulties over procedural issues, therefore, will come to the fore again when the parties meet today. There are also fears that the session may give rise to further recriminations over Drumcree and subsequent events.
Meanwhile, the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, is to have discussions early this week with leaders of the Apprentice Boys organisation, whose annual parade is due to take place in Derry on August 10th.
The organisation is expected to formally notify the RUC that it intends to march the same route as last year - which includes the entire circuit of Derry's Walls. There were serious disturbances after last year's parade, when the RUC forcibly removed several hundred protesters from the Bogside community who were blocking that section of the walls overlooking their community.
The UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, is seeking talks with senior RUC officers in the Derry area to discuss security for the parade.