The Taoiseach is in full agreement with the British Prime Minister that Sinn Fein and the IRA are "inextricably linked", a Government spokesman has said.
Rejecting suggestions of a split on the issue between Mr Ahern and Mr Blair, the spokesman added that recent, apparently contrary, comments by the Taoiseach only echoed the views of Northern politicians, including the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble.
"What Mr Ahern is saying is that Sinn Fein and the IRA are two separate organisations within the same republican family, that they may be inextricably linked, but that relying on one to speak for the other really isn't credible."
This was essentially the view expressed by Mr Trimble in his immediate response to the proposals contained in The Way Forward, the spokesman said.
Security sources said they still expected a meeting of the IRA leadership over the weekend and were hopeful the organisation would issue a statement about decommissioning that could facilitate the political process.
Sources said it is still expected that the IRA may be able to issue a statement that would go a good deal of the way to satisfying unionist demands. They said there was still considerable opposition to decommissioning in some hardline republican areas, particularly south Armagh, Tyrone and even in parts of Belfast, where there is otherwise strong support for the Sinn Fein leadership. The expected IRA statement may contain some wording designed to appease this hardline element.
Meanwhile, the Fine Gael leader, Mr John Bruton, said that the issue of whether Sinn Fein and the IRA were the same or separate organisations was "a time-wasting and pointless argument".
The real problem, he added, was that neither of them had ever publicly accepted that the referendums of the Belfast Agreement represented an act of national self-determination.
"Both have a political line which justifies or requires the IRA to maintain its military capacity because, in both their opinions, the mutual objectives have not been achieved.
"What is required now is that the two organisations, regardless of their connection, accept that the national will of the Irish people was expressed in the referendum on the Good Friday agreement (including its disarmament commitments)."
Mr Bruton added that when Mr John Hume "started the peace process" he sought to persuade Sinn Fein and the IRA that national determination could be achieved by agreement rather than continued war. Sinn Fein had backed off the logic of their own peace process, Mr Bruton said.