The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, will this evening at Hillsborough try to elicit from Sinn Féin assurances that the IRA will engage in dramatic action to help restore devolution and that Ulster Unionists will reciprocate any such move.
Neither Mr Ahern nor Mr Blair is expecting specific commitments from Ulster Unionists and Sinn Féin at today's Hillsborough talks but they want both parties to provide mutual guarantees that they will work to assist the reactivation of the Stormont institutions.
The British and Irish leaders expect to be back in Northern Ireland in the coming weeks.
At Hillsborough today, they want to see evidence that Sinn Féin realises that substantial proof demonstrating that the IRA is an inactive force is required from republicans and if that is forthcoming, that it will not be repudiated by Ulster Unionists, sources said last night.
"This is not a make-or-break meeting, but it is important that we start learning what the principals are prepared to offer, as opposed to hearing once again what they want," said one senior source.
The coming two weeks will involve intense behind-the-scenes negotiations when the two governments, with Sinn Féin and Ulster Unionist negotiators in particular, will attempt to flesh out the details of an agreement.
They will focus on issues such as the IRA effectively standing down, Sinn Féin joining the Policing Board, British army demilitarisation, further police reform, devolving responsibility for policing and criminal justice to the Executive and Assembly and Ulster Unionists committing themselves to engage fully with the political institutions.
The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, yesterday dampened down any suggestions of a breakthrough at Hillsborough .
The deadline for agreement to allow May 1st elections is the period around St Patrick's week. "Can it be sorted out between now and March?" Mr Adams asked.
"Not on the evidence we have thus far. Everyone knows it is not a single-item agenda. Everybody knows that. Have we seen then the type of programme that is required to make the agenda become a reality? Again I have to say we have not."
Mr Adams again refused to outline what the IRA might be prepared to do in meeting Mr Blair's request for acts of completion. He added however: "The two governments have a clear view, if they are listening at all, of what can be done at our end."
The governments dispute that they have a transparent idea of what the IRA might deliver, but nonetheless in London and Dublin there is a sense that the IRA is prepared to effectively state that its war is over and perhaps back up such a commitment by a major act of decommissioning.
"There is a good feeling that they mean what they say this time," said one British source.
The SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, was also optimistic yesterday that the institutions would be restored. "While we meet at a time of continuing instability within the political process, confidence is growing that a resolution of current difficulties may be within reach," he told pupils at St Paul's High School in Bessbrook, Co Armagh.
"I am particularly challenging the Ulster Unionists and Sinn Féin, who between them got us all into this mess and have so far failed abysmally to get us out of it," he added.
The Strangford MLA, Lord Kilclooney (John Taylor) insisted in the House of Lords yesterday that an act of IRA decommissioning would not restore devolution.
"To win the confidence of the people of Northern Ireland, which has now been lost, and to regain support for the agreement, which has declined, it is necessary to have not only decommissioning but real sanctions if those who decommission break the peace."
