A policy document on making better use of government expenditure is due to be published on Tuesday and will be followed on Wednesday by a joint paper on Irish emigrants in Britain and the US.

Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte are expected to attend both press conferences in Dublin as strategists in the two parties attempt to present a visible image of greater co-operation.

In an interview with the Sunday Tribune last month, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern criticised the joint approach of Fine Gael and Labour for being "no more sophisticated than the Mullingar accord".

Sources in the two opposition parties said the joint policy positions were a serious development of the broad principles laid down in the accord, which was published in 2004.

Since the accord was agreed, the two parties have published joint documents on social partnership and Oireachtas reform. The new government spending document will review recent examples of poor use of exchequer funds, including e-voting and the PPars project. It will identify the common factors for spending overruns and set out new guidelines for increasing ministerial responsibility.

In the Irish emigrants document, the two parties will commit themselves to establish a new agency for the Irish abroad. It would deal in particular with the plight of Irish emigrants to the UK who have fallen on hard times and those who are living illegally in the United States.

The policy areas worked on to date by Fine Gael and Labour are those where differences between the two parties are easiest to reconcile. Senior sources in both parties admit that any public agreement on joint tax and spending plans ahead of the next election campaign was unlikely. Representatives of the two parties are meeting regularly.

The Labour team includes former party adviser Fergus Finlay and his successor as chef de cabinet, Adrian Langan. Fine Gael is represented by its national director of elections, Frank Flannery, and Gerry Naughton, a senior member of Enda Kenny's staff.