By BBC political editor Robin Oakley

It will be a week of watching and waiting on the Northern Ireland peace process while the legislation to provide for the reintroduction of direct rule is rushed through Parliament.

In the Commons this week the government faces up to controversy on homosexual issues.

On Monday, it may well be defeated in the Lords over the attempt to repeal Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which forbids the promotion of homosexuality.

In the Commons it is bringing forward a procedural motion to speed the progress of the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act which equalises the age of consent for gay and heterosexual sex.

Northern Ireland

Suspension of the power-sharing executive and the Northern Ireland assembly this coming Friday seems pretty well inevitable.

A dramatic last minute breakthrough is not expected to follow the prime minister's candid, non-threatening appeal to the IRA to make the crucial move and at least set a timetable for the decommissioning of arms.

The British government (whose decision it is) reckons the only way it can protect David Trimble's leadership is by putting the eight week old devolutionary institutions into cold storage.

Both the British prime minister and, more reluctantly, the Irish Taioseach accept that the point has been reached at which the Unionists will be satisfied with nothing less than a real handover of arms and that Mr Trimble could not now ignore his post-dated letter of resignation.

But as Peter Mandelson acknowledged in the Commons last Thursday it may well be that a return to direct rule makes it even less likely that the IRA and other paramilitaries will disarm.

The hope is that Gerry Adams' warnings will prove incorrect and that the IRA, following its communiques saying that it remains committed to the peace process and that the arms issue can be resolved, will stay in contact with General de Chastelain's International Commission on Decommissioning.

Republicans insist that the IRA and Sinn Fein, fearful of splits as they negotiate towards decommissioning, must be given more time and that the only deadline in the Good Friday Agreement was May.

Unionists argue that they have made crucial concessions by agreeing to serve in a power-sharing executive with Sinn Fein before any weapons were handed over and that they could not be expected to do so any longer without some hard evidence of peaceful intent.

For them the end of January was a deadline. The government's curiously-timed decision to go ahead with reform of the RUC has made them less likely to compromise. Impasse once again.

The British government says bravely that all is not lost, that Northern Ireland politicians have developed the habit of talking to each other, that the guns remain silent and that the desire of the people for peace is overwhelming.

But there is a tacit acknowledgment too that if it is forced to go ahead with the reimposition of direct rule it may take years to reach as promising a point again in the peace process.

There will be a fear that sections at least of the IRA will use the reimposition of direct rule to argue for a return to the strategy of bombing the British Government into concessions.

And there may well be difficult consequences too for Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness within the Republican movement.

Section 28 and all that

The section of the 1988 Local Government Act which has caused all the controversy says that local authorities "shall not intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality" and that they shall not "promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship".

The government says that this is discriminatory and that it serves to legitimise intolerance.

Ministers argue that the present law effectively prevents teachers from giving proper sex education and from countering homophobic bullying in schools.

Opponents of repeal say that it is an encouragement to undermining the family.

A furious controversy over the issue in Scotland and the heavy participation of many religious authorities has inflamed the debate, with much argument over the difference between "discussing" and "promoting".

Cardinal Winning has condemned homosexuality as "perversion" and Dr George Carey, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said that he resists placing homosexual relationships on an equal footing with marriage.

The government has resisted the barrage of criticism, saying that this is not about children being "taught to be gay" and that it welcomes a "sensible and rational debate" with Church leaders.

Ministers hope that by outlining in advance of the debate in the Lords some of the guidelines that will be issued to schools following repeal of Section 28, including an effort to promote the values of heterosexual marriage and to urge pupils to delay in sexual experience, will help to win the day in the Lords.

But ministers are gloomily contemplating the prospects of a defeat in the upper House.

Ironically it would happen on the same day on which the government is reintroducing the Sexual Offences Bill in the Commons, equalising the age of consent for homosexual acts, after that was defeated in the old-style Lords last session.

The aim is now to speed that through under the Parliament Act, with peers this time powerless to stop the measure.