The government's industrial relations troubleshooting body, the NIB, which is headed up by the Taoiseach's right hand man, Dermot McCarthy, will invite both sides to talks on Wednesday, according to industry sources.

But the NIB wants the two nursing unions, the INO and the PNA, to call off a planned escalation of the dispute which would see over 50 hospitals nationwide hit by onehour stoppages two days this week.

Liam Doran of the INO has already said that the unions would call off the planned escalation if they were invited back into what he described as "meaningful" talks.

But the unions will continue their work-to-rule which the head of the HSE, Professor Brendan Drumm, said was costing 1.5m a week.

Drumm added that the HSE might have to consider recouping that money from the nurses if the work-to-rule continued much longer. This comment, late on Friday afternoon, almost scuppered the delicate peace overtures between the two sides that had been developing earlier that day.

It is understood that a major factor in the Taoiseach's reluctance to name a date for the election has been the ongoing nurses' dispute.

While the government has publicly been holding firm against the nurses' pay demands, privately the Taoiseach does not want to face angry nurses at every street corner while canvassing, as happened to him last week in Portlaoise.

It is understood there has been extreme political pressure on both sides in the dispute to get the nurses off the streets. It was this pressure which resulted in the invitation to talks on Wednesday and the suspension of the work stoppages.

But while the politicians may be content with getting the nurses off the streets at least temporarily to allow an election date, industry sources have been less optimistic that this week's talks will resolve the dispute in the long term.

"There has been a definite softening of attitude from the nursing unions but the substance of their claim remains unaltered and will be just as difficult to resolve as it was a few months ago, " said a source.

"While the unions have said that a definitive date for the shorter working week is no longer a precondition for talks, they will be demanding that date early in the talks. But the HSE still can't give that date until they are sure that nurses will concede the productivity to allow the shorter working week to be introduced on a cost neutral basis. Even then, we still have to work out the pay issue, which still has little or no room for manoeuvre."

Dave Begg, general secretary of the Ictu and also a key member of the NIB, said much the same last week. While welcoming talks, Begg said the substance of the nurses' claim remained the same.

Meanwhile, the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association, which represents the majority of the country's 2,000 hospital consultants, is to meet today to consider withdrawing from certain administrative hospital duties in protest at the HSE's decision to advertise 68 posts under new contracts of employment without reaching agreement with the unions.

The IHCA withdrew last week from the contract talks, which have now been ongoing for three years.

The IMO, which represents around 700 consultants, decided to stay with the talks but threatened action if the HSE made any move to actually appoint consultants on the new contract.

However, a HSE spokesman said that it will proceed to place more advertisements in the international press this week. The new public service-only posts carry a top salary of 205,000 plus a 20% performance bonus for a 39-hour week spread over seven days.

While the IHCA described the salary on offer as "mickey mouse", recently released figures from the UK show that the average salary for a consultant there is �110,000 ( 160,000) for a 50-hour week. The HSE said it would be targeting UK doctors for these new disputed posts.