The Minister for Agriculture and Food, Mr Walsh, will this morning meet the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) in what could be a stormy meeting on the CAP reform negotiations.
The IFA said yesterday that the meeting will allow it to seek clarification and iron out difficulties which had arisen in Brussels on Monday.
However, a spokesman for the Minister said this was not the case.
"The Minister was at the talks to defend the gains made in the Agenda 2000 agreement and to protect Ireland's output from farms and the agri-food sector," he said.
A statement issued by the IFA on Monday said that the Minister had accepted the proposals on reform put forward by the IFA last week, which represented a serious alternative to the Fischler proposals.
However, this was denied on Monday evening by the Minister's office, which reiterated Mr Walsh's stance in the negotiations.
The Brussels meeting was being played out against a background of reports that the Irish were no longer backing the French and Spanish in total opposition to the radical reforms being proposed by Dr Franz Fischler, the EU's Agriculture and Fisheries Commissioner.
The second-largest farm organisation, the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, has been urging Mr Walsh to stand firm in his opposition to the reform package, which proposes breaking the link between production and direct payments to farmers.
Its president, Mr Pat O'Rourke, said he was opposed not only to the decoupling proposal but also to any or partial decoupling which has been proposed by some of the Union states.
Only one of the Irish farm organisations, the Irish Cattle and Sheepfarmers' Association, is in full support of the Fischler reforms.
Reports from Brussels last night indicated that France, which has been leading the opposition to Dr Fischler's package, may be slowly shifting its position.
A Reuters report said while the French had announced no change in their total opposition to the package, the fear of being isolated had prompted a shift in their position.
The report said that Paris had begun to indicate where it might be ready to accept a deal when ministers reconvene in Luxembourg on June 11th for what promises to be a marathon negotiating session, and final vote.
The day before that, France and Germany will hold a summit where Germany's Agriculture Minister, Ms Renate Kuenast, has said she hopes to cut a deal on EU farm reform.
Any such behind-the-scenes compromise would probably be accepted by other member-states.
The report said that during Monday's meeting between Dr Fischler and the French Agriculture Minister, Hervé Gaymard, the Frenchman had indicated that Paris would not oppose a form of partial decoupling but remained against the concept of total decoupling.
Most EU states want a deal next month so that the bloc has a better negotiating stance on farm trade at a September meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Cancun.