Gordon Brown will meet with local parties later today
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Prime Minister Gordon Brown will travel to Northern Ireland later to address assembly members at Stormont and meet local political party leaders.
Mr Brown will tour a manufacturer in the Greater Belfast area before addressing MLAs.
The parties will press him for financial help to defer water charges and he will urge them to move on the issues blocking an executive meeting.
It has not met for three months, but a meeting is planned for Thursday.
The visit comes amid attempts to force a leadership contest in the Labour Party.
The party's National Executive Committee is expected to reject requests for leadership nomination forms from MPs unhappy with Mr Brown's performance.
Mr Brown will be attending the meeting of the NEC, followed by a Cabinet meeting and hold talks with the new Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari before travelling to Northern Ireland.
Peter Robinson has said the executive must meet
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First Minister Peter Robinson has said he hopes the executive meeting will go ahead on Thursday, however, Sinn Féin has said not enough political progress has been made.
On Monday, the first minister faced questions in the assembly about the failure of the executive to convene since June.
However, Mr Robinson said there were more than two dozen issues that needed to be dealt with.
"The situation requires much more of me simply than grandstanding and scoring party political points," he said.
"What I do say is I would be deeply disappointed and the disappointment I have would be reflected right across this community, if the executive does not meet on Thursday."
The assembly got back to work at Monday lunchtime with DUP MLA Ian Paisley Junior raising a point of order about security searches ahead of the prime minister's visit.
He wanted a reassurance that all offices will be searched. Some Sinn Féin assembly members had raised concerns about their offices being searched without prior notice.
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