The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, is to stay on in Dublin for Northern Ireland talks with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, following next weekend's European Union enlargement celebrations, write write Mark Hennessy and Gerry Moriarty.
The encounter will mark the latest attempt by the two leaders to spur progress in efforts to get the Northern Ireland Assembly and the Executive back in operation.
Mr Blair, who had been scheduled to return to London on Saturday evening, will stay overnight in Dublin for talks on Sunday in Farmleigh.
The talks announcement came shortly after the Northern Ireland's Policing Board chairman, Mr Denis Bradley, accused the Government of failing to grasp the chance to strike a deal which would restore power-sharing and see the IRA ending activity.
"This is the moment to do the business. You can't wait for Europe. You can't wait for the next Westminster elections," said the chairman, who claimed Mr Ahern is still bitter that Sinn Féin and the IRA failed to honour copper-fastened deals last April and October.
Declaring Mr Ahern's commitment to be "undiminished", the Government said he would meet with the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, this afternoon and the SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan, on Friday.
Pushing for real concessions, Mr Ahern, speaking earlier in the day after Fianna Fáil's Arbour Hill commemoration, said: "I worry that we have lost so much time. The two governments are still prepared to make progress.
"What I am not prepared to do is sit around talking about the same things that we signed off on a year ago. That is a waste of time, quite frankly. We know the arguments."
He continued: "The political parties need to move on. We need to stop the rhetoric and get on with it."
Keen to avoid a public confrontation with Mr Bradley last night, the Government spokeswoman said: "(It) greatly values the work of Denis Bradley who is doing a very good job in difficult circumstances."
A key intermediary between the British and the IRA before the 1994 ceasefire, Mr Bradley said Mr Ahern should give the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, a free hand. "Somebody like Brian Cowen can make this happen, and it can be done in a short period of time. But you can't expect the IRA to walk down the road to oblivion unless they know what is in place is full power-sharing and all the institutions of the Good Friday agreement."
However, the Government spokeswoman insisted that Mr Cowen had not pulled back from the process, pointing out that he had chaired Northern Ireland talks within the last week.
Speaking to The Irish Times Mr Bradley said: "The North is not going to go back to war but it is going into a very dangerous period of time."
He said he had some sympathy with the attacks by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, on Sinn Féin because republicans had "over-played their hand" and made tactical errors in not cementing a deal last year. But, equally, the Government must also act constructively and diplomatically to persuade the IRA to go out of business.
Three unnamed key intermediaries, who had been used by the Government in the past, have "been ignored" for months, he claimed.
The two governments should not be hesitant about further talks because of fears that the IRA will fail to deliver: "I believe the IRA is prepared to go away but if it isn't then the Irish people should be told that fact.
"If it won't go away then referendums should be held on the island of Ireland asking the people did they want the IRA to go away, so that the IRA would clearly know the view of the people," he added.