SINN Fein leaders Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Martin McGuinness' are to address a special party conference on "conflict resolution" in Co Meath this weekend amid conflicting signs about the IRA's intentions.
The RUC's discovery of IRA preparations for a landmine or mortar attack on security forces vehicles in countryside outside Derry yesterday raised fears that the IRA might be on the verge of relaunching its campaign in Northern Ireland.
The possibility of an imminent resumption of republican violence in the North also accords with Garda intelligence that the IRA may have set a deadline for British government agreement on terms for a return to political talks.
Recent Garda arms finds included bombs and other weapons which were primed for use against security force targets in the North.
The RUC in Belfast have also discovered IRA intelligence files, some hacked from computer files, on security force and judicial targets.
A Sinn Fein spokesman said last night that the special private party conference to be held in Co Meath would not be a cloak for an IRA convention operating within its confines. About 300 delegates are expected.
It is now believed that no IRA convention will take place. Reports that an IRA convention took place two weeks ago are dismissed by senior security sources. However, it is believed that senior IRA figures did meet informally to discuss conditions for a return to the Northern talks.
Some of events now emerging bear a strong resemblance to those which preceded the 1994 ceasefire, security sources have pointed out. That ceasefire was preceded by a series of informal high level meetings within the IRA and by a special Sinn Fein conference in Letterkenny Co Donegal.
The loyalist political parties - the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP) and Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) - yesterday wamed that British acceptance of IRA terms on a ceasefire and Sinn Fein's immediate entry to talks would lead to a collapse of the talks process.
The PUP leader, Mr David Ervine said the discovery of the site of the IRA attack in Derry "spoke loud and clear that the Provos are at war".
A relaunch of IRA attacks on security forces targets within Northern Ireland could still lead to loyalist retaliation, despite the decision by the loyalists not to react to the IRA attack on the British army headquarters, in Lisburn, Co Antrim last month.
Yesterday's discovery of a planned IRA landmine or mortar attack was the culmination of a three day search operation by the RUC at the junction of Springtown Road and Groarty Road, north west of Derry city, and a mile from the Derry Donegal border. The operation involved dozens of police officers and started on Saturday.
The police found that a hole had been dug in an embankment on the side of Groarty Road. A command wire, painted green, insulating tape and pliers were also found at the scene.
"There was also evidence that people had been concealed in shrubbery and it appears terrorists were planning an attack," said an RUC spokesperson.
Sinn Fein was attempting to play down the significance of Derry find. The party was "genuinely seeking to advance the peace process", a spokesman said. That required a commitment from the British government that talks would take place without preconditions, he said.
If that commitment was forthcoming Sinn Fein could go to the IRA and seek a resumption of the ceasefire. In the meantime Sinn Fein could not be answerable for what the IRA did, because they were separate organisations, he insisted.
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, the party chairman, in a separate statement, accused unionists of fearing genuine talks. "They are frantically creating obstacles in an attempt to prevent any such progress," he said.
The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, in an interview on BBC Radio Ulster, said he was still hopeful of a renewed IRA ceasefire. He added, however: "I cannot place it on a higher level than hope at the present time."
Mr Hume said he would continue working with Mr Adams to seek inclusive, all party talks and an unequivocal resumption of the IRA ceasefire.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, said the Derry - find, proved, that, the ceasefire speculation was "moonshine". He said the British government must now make clear its position on how and when Sinn Fein might be allowed into talks.
The British government must also provide details of its "behind the scenes contacts" with the republican movement through Mr Hume and the Irish Government, he added.
Mr Trimble did not accept that the UUP had hardened its position on decommissioning, despite an Irish Times report that the party would demand the handing over of a "sizeable tranche" of weapons before Sinn Fein could be admitted to substantive negotiations. This was the consistent UUP position, he indicated.