The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said progress is needed in the next two weeks if elections for the Northern Assembly are to go ahead. The Taoiseach met the leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, Mr David Trimble, in Dublin today.
The Taoiseach was speaking after he met Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble in Dublin for talks on securing an autumn Assembly election.
He said: "If everybody moves to a position that allows us to move on we can have elections, a working executive and all that was in the Agreement."
But he warned that a period of time for setting up an election was short."It is mid-September exactly today," Mr Ahern said.
"If we had anything done today that brings us to the end of October. We arenot in that position today.
"So everything after today is pushing us into November. That is the realityof it so therefore we are going to try and do as much as we can in the next twoweeks."
He added: "We have to really move now. Otherwise we are pushing it back intoNovember and that is not a great idea."
Mr Trimble said an end to paramilitarism was required and major action was required on decommissioning if the Assembly was to be restored.
He said: "We want to see a complete end to paramilitary activity and ithappening in a context where we can sure it doesn't come back.
"I have to say on that that the Monitoring Commission - which has been set inplace and I appreciate what has been done to set them in place - that is part ofa way of assuring people that in the new dispensation if there is any continuingparamilitary activity it will be spotted and responsibility clearly attributedif it occurs."
Mr Trimble said a "major decisive move" was needed on the decommissioningfront to ensure an end to this activity.
He said the time frame for an election was short adding: "It does really boildown to achieving a breakthrough over the next few weeks."
Mr Trimble added that he hoped that the positive summer would help the partiesmove forwards in the course of the next couple of weeks.
The Irish and British governments are understood to have set out a timetable of three weeks of intensive meetings intended to bring a November poll.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, will meet the SDLP tomorrow and the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, on Thursday.
Talks are also expected to be held among the pro-Agreement parties in the North following those already held between Sinn Féin's Mr Gerry Adams and Mr Trimble at Stormont last week.
Sinn Féin has insisted in recent days that the British Government must set adate for Assembly election soon if there is going to be the possibility ofmovement in the peace process.
Mr Ahern met the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, at his country retreat at Chequers, Buckinghamshire, on Saturday.
They met for some two hours with officials before they held private talks on the way ahead for the stalled political process in the North.