Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams last night welcomed the announcement from the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, of plans to intensify talks ahead of May's Northern Assembly elections.
He said he hoped to see "the creation of an implementation plan for the agreement from the two governments.
"I welcome the fact that there is going to be intensive discussions as that is something Sinn Féin has been calling for since last October when Mr Blair made what was considered an important speech in Belfast.
"There is no doubt that they want to see it sorted out as quickly as possible but we have to see the substance of that and how they manage the process. We are certainly up for doing our bit to sort it out."
Earlier, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, said republicans would first have to deliver an end to paramilitary activity.
"We emphasise the need for there to be genuine acts of completion. In our experience in the last four and a half years there is no credibility, there is no trust to build on, there has to be action.
"There have been times when we jumped first. That's not going to happen again."
Mr Adams questioned Mr Trimble's claim that his party had "jumped first" at critical stages in the peace process in the past.
"In any negotiation in which I was involved in, the UUP were carefully cushioned, with choreographed moves for them.
"Now if he is saying he is not going to be bounced into anything, I can understand that, but he has to be able to assure people his party is going to be part of the institutions and going to be a sustainable part.
"He has to assure people there will be an end to the hokey-cokey style First Ministership we have seen."
SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan said the agenda for round table talks next week should be the delivery of the complete implementation of the Good Friday agreement.
"I hope now that we can move to a situation where parties are no longer in a position of holding back on different issues.
"We can move beyond all the hold-ups and we can move beyond the hang-ups that have prevented some parties from engaging on the full range of issues that others want to deal with.
Mr Durkan said the IRA must make some move to restore unionist confidence in the peace process.
"I think there is a realisation among members of and supporters of the republican movement that it isn't enough to treat all the questions raised and all the concerns raised about the IRA as just figments of unionist paranoia or unionist intransigence." - (PA)