The Government will today move to counter the political fallout from yesterday's first report by the Independent Monitoring Commission.
The commission's call for financial sanctions against Sinn Féin and the PUP, endorsed by the British government, has provoked a storm of protest.
The report accused unnamed senior members of Sinn Féin of being members of the IRA and also blamed Mr David Ervine's Progressive Unionist Party for failing "to exert all possible influence to prevent illegal activities on the part of the UVF and Red Hand Commando".
The commission said it might name senior political people who were also involved in paramilitary groups next time it reports.
In Dublin the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, described the report as "disturbing and worrying".
However, he said the conclusions offered by the IMC after months of inquiry could not deflect from efforts to get the Northern political institutions back up and running.
Refusing to rule out negotiations with any of the parties, including Sinn Féin, Mr Ahern said: "I have to continue to deal with all of the parties. If I don't do that, I will not make progress."
The 55-page dossier also detailed wide-ranging and growing incidences of paramilitary and criminal activity since the signing of the Belfast Agreement.
Republicans rejected the commission and its findings.
"We will fight this with every means at our disposal in a political way," party chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin vowed.
The DUP claimed that fining the parties cited in the report amounted to little more than a murder tax. The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, urged the British government to reconsider its prisoner release scheme.
The report was published in Dublin and London just hours after the British government cancelled next week's scheduled intensive "proximity talks" involving the two heads of government and the Northern parties.
Both governments now accept their June deadline for a political agreement aimed at restoring devolution to Stormont will not be met.
However, the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, insisted last night that efforts to break the political impasse which has resulted in the suspension of the Stormont institutions since October 2002 would continue. Intensive talks would be hosted "later in the summer" after the marching season and June's elections, he said.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, will seek progress today at the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference in London on outstanding issues relating to the implementation of the Belfast Agreement which are not conditional on the actions of any of the parties.
However, The Irish Times was told there could be no movement on demilitarisation, paramilitary fugitives or on further policing reform until Sinn Féin commits to joining the Policing Board and other steps. The decision to call off next week's proximity talks at Lancaster House in London was taken by the British government following a telephone conversation between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Mr Tony Blair on Monday.
It is understood Mr Ahern stressed the pointlessness of hosting such talks when it seemed probable "the game plan would fall apart", as one reliable source put it.
The four IMC commissioners, Mr Joe Brosnan, Lord Alderdice, Mr Richard Kerr and Cmdr John Grieve, said their next report - due in the autumn - may name those senior figures they believe are members of paramilitary organisations.