The Taoiseach and the British prime minister will return to Northern Ireland next month as a new intensive effort is begun to re-establish the Stormont institutions.
The announcement was made in Hillsborough following talks between the Northern Secretary and the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
In an unusually strong show of unity following the so-called Stormontgate revelations, Peter Hain and Dermot Ahern said their governments were committed to establishing political stability ahead of scheduled Assembly elections in May 2007. Dublin and London believe there would be little point in those elections if the Belfast Agreement remains suspended.
Political trust between the parties crumbled further yesterday in the aftermath of the spying allegations, with the SDLP accusing Sinn Féin and British officials of a cover-up. Unionists persisted in the clamour for London to set its story straight.
Despite this, both ministers insisted they had faith in each other, as did their respective governments, and refused to dwell on the Stormont controversy.
They were at pains to make clear that their political drive for progress in the New Year would go ahead despite the turmoil over the unmasking of senior Sinn Féin official Denis Donaldson as a British spy of 20 years' standing, and the intense pressure for answers.
Mr Ahern said: "Nothing should allow us to be diverted from what we are meeting here today about . . . and that is to move forward as much as possible."
He said London had agreed a statement would be made presenting as fully as possible the facts of the Stormont spying affair.
"These events are fortunately the vestige of the past," said Mr Ahern. "We want to put these behind us as much as we can. The important issue is where we move from here in order to get the Assembly and the Executive up and running."
A meeting between the Taoiseach and the PSNI Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Orde, will also be scheduled.
Next month's report from the Independent Monitoring Commission, expected to confirm IRA inactivity, will trigger a renewed push for progress.
Government sources indicated this would need to entail a republican commitment to policing, as well as a change in the DUP position on entering a power-sharing executive with Sinn Féin.
The two governments want a re-established Stormont by 2007 or, The Irish Times understands, to be in a position to "go live" immediately after the next Assembly elections in May that year.
Earlier yesterday Mr Hain spurned unionist calls for an inquiry into the Stormont spy ring allegations and warned that no elections would go ahead unless suspension was over. "What is clear, however, is that we cannot go into elections for an Assembly in May 2007 that will not exist," he warned.
Speaking after a meeting at Stormont with Mr Hain, Sinn Féin chief negotiator Martin McGuinness said the onus was now on London to approach the peace process openly and honestly.
"It is now time for the British to answer questions about their agents, about their agencies, and about their approach to the process," he said.
"What we are calling on them to do is declare that their war against republicans and the peace process is finally over."
In the House of Commons, DUP leader Ian Paisley pressed Mr Blair for more information on the Stormont affair. "I want to remind him of a promise he made to me on Wednesday last that he would consider if more information could be given to the House of Commons and I hope he will keep that promise that he made," he warned.