The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, yesterday expressed surprise at Mr David Trimble's resignation threat.
He said he had met the UUP leader at some length with his colleagues on Friday and he had made no mention of the matter.
"I understand that the British Prime Minister heard word of it five minutes - and Seamus Mallon two minutes - before it was announced.
"We recognise, in the Irish Government, the need for urgent progress to be made in the implementation of all of the outstanding aspects of the agreement and we expect that all of the pro-agreement parties will, in particular following the British general election, work constructively with the two governments to overcome all the remaining obstacles.
"We have, over the past number of weeks, made substantial progress. We have been working on the policing issue, in particular; also looking at what we would need to extend the decommissioning remit. The British government has said that it would like to extend the de Chastelain remit to February at least."
The Taoiseach was urged by the Fine Gael leader, Mr Michael Noonan, to contact the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, to ask him to allow officials to continue working through the period of the election to resolve the issue.
Mr Ahern said there was a difficulty in that key officials working for Mr Blair had resigned their positions. "They leave No 10 and go to party headquarters. So they are out of the equation from tomorrow (Wednesday). As far as we can keep any kind of contact with them, we will."
He added that the "key drivers" involved were advisers to the Prime Minister. Contact would be maintained with civil servants.
He said the Irish Government would maintain contact with the various parties involved.
Earlier, Mr Noonan said everybody in the House was concerned with the news emanating from the North.
He asked Mr Ahern if Mr Trimble's threat to resign as First Minister of the Northern Executive "poses the most serious threat yet to the Good Friday agreement unless the republican movement makes serious and credible moves towards decommissioning by June 30th".
He knew, he said, that the Taoiseach would be aware of the surprise and disappointment expressed by spokespeople for the SDLP and Sinn Fein. The onus to resolve the impasse now rested with the two sovereign governments.
He asked Mr Ahern to ensure that all the preparatory work necessary for negotiating a settlement would be made by him and the British government and their officials so that when the new government took office in June, negotiations towards a resolution could commence immediately.
The Labour deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, said there was a level of brinkmanship in Mr Trimble's statement and Mr Martin McGuinness's response to that statement which threatened to put at risk the extremely good work of the institutions put in place subsequent to the agreement.