Chilean authorities have promised to provide whatever assistance is necessary in the search for missing backpacker Ronan Lawlor.
28-year-old Ronan Lawlor from Durrow, Co Laois, has not been in touch with friends or family since 18 November when he entered the Torres del Paine national park, which straddles the Argentinean/Chilean border.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern spoke with his Chilean counterpart, Alberto Van Klaveren, earlier.
He also spoke to the Irish ambassador in Buenos Aires in Argentina, Philomena Murnaghan.
Mr Ahern has been told that the Argentinian authorities will deploy sniffer dogs in the search for Mr Lawlor as early as tomorrow.
The search has been narrowed to a certain area of the park on the border between Argentina and Chile.
A friend of Mr Lawlor, Colm O'Gorman, said they had managed to speak to a couple who had met Ronan on a bus as they journeyed to the park together.
He said Mr Lawlor told the couple the direction he was going and the campsite he intended to stay at.
Mr O'Gorman said this information means that search and rescue teams are today focusing on this area of the park.
He described the information as an important development in the search for his friend.
