Ireland will take part in discussions on a draft resolution on the eradication of international terrorism which is expected to come before an informal meeting of the 15 members of the United Nations Security Council this week.
The resolution will aim to increase the pressure on all UN member-states to implement 12 existing international conventions which seek to outlaw terrorism in all its aspects.
The draft text is understood to be the subject of consultations primarily between France, which holds the council presidency this month, the United Kingdom and the US. Russian support is also apparently being sought.
Ireland, which takes over the council presidency on October 1st, is likely to support the general thrust of the recommendations.
France and the UK have reportedly been outdoing one another in their efforts to have the draft resolution completed and approved. Once adopted, it would constitute an international checklist of measures to prevent and suppress terrorism. It would be a useful tool for President Bush and the US administration to identify which countries were playing their full part in the campaign against terrorism and which ones were lagging behind.
Within 24 hours of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, the Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 1368. The text, which was drafted in consultation with the US, was debated and voted on in approximately one hour. Resolution 1368 condemned the outrages in the strongest terms and was widely seen as giving implicit authorisation to the US and its allies to take measured and precise forms of retaliatory action in the short term without having to seek approval in advance from the Council.
The current president of the council, Mr Jean-David Levitte of France, said at the weekend: "The question is today, is there room for action beyond Resolution 1368 that we adopted unanimously a few days ago?" He said this would be discussed in the coming week.
There already about a dozen UN treaties on different aspects of terrorism. In addition, he said, an international convention against terrorism and a convention specifically dealing with nuclear terrorism had been under consideration for some time. There were also specialist institutions and agencies as well as regional organisations involved in the fight against terrorism.
The broad view of the UN was expressed by its Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, who said in a newspaper article that the world body "provides the forum necessary for building a universal coalition, and can ensure global legitimacy for the long-term response to terrorism".
He continued: "United Nations conventions already provide a legal framework for many of the steps that must be taken to eradicate terrorism - including the extradition and prosecution of offenders and the suppression of money-laundering. These conventions must be implemented in full."
However Mr Annan cautioned that "no people, no region and no religion should be condemned, assaulted or targeted because of the unspeakable acts of individuals".
The new US ambassador to the UN, Mr John Negroponte, said that while the administration had yet to make a decision on whether it would ask the council for further endorsements, "we are in a period of intense diplomatic consultations, both in Washington, around the world, on a multilateral, regional and bilateral basis."
While a request from the US for a formal UN mandate may be unlikely in the short term, commentators believe any long-term strategy against terrorism will need UN approval and co-operation.