British Prime Minister Theresa May will talk to Sinn Féin in the coming days about efforts to restore the North’s devolved government, Mrs May's spokeswoman has said.
Representatives from Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party resumed talks this week in their first attempt in more than a year to restore the power-sharing Assembly at Stormont, which collapsed in January 2017.
Mrs May also discussed the talks with the DUP yesterday.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney has said the Irish and British governments will work with Northern Irish parties to try to restore a devolved government within weeks rather than months.
The killing of 29-year-old reporter Lyra McKee during rioting by dissident republicans in Derry last month increased pressure on politicians to get the devolved government working again.
"We've seen in the killing of Lyra McKee and the tragedy around that what happens in a vacuum where politics isn't working," Mr Coveney told BBC radio. "We need to correct that."
"Ireland and Britain need to work together," he said. "And the British and Irish governments will work closely together to try and do some of the heavy lifting with the political parties that can change this within weeks not months."
