The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, yesterday agreed a pre-holiday work programme they hope will enable Northern Ireland Assembly elections to take place in the autumn.
However, the question mark over that possibility remained last night as the internal warfare within the Ulster Unionist Party resumed centre-stage.
It was confirmed that three MPs, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and Mr David Burnside, will begin proceedings in the High Court in Belfast this morning seeking to have the suspension of their party membership pending a disciplinary hearing deemed unlawful.
At the same time the UUP leader, Mr David Trimble, is understood to have told the Taoiseach that his party will be in no position to consider the possibility of elections, or a return to power-sharing with Sinn Féin, before the conclusion of the proceedings against the three dissident MPs in mid-September.
Against that optimistic forecast, some of Mr Trimble's colleagues are predicting that the UUP's internal battle could yet see Assembly elections postponed at least until the spring of next year. Mr Trimble met Mr Ahern at the Irish Embassy immediately after the Taoiseach's 80-minute session with Mr Blair at 10 Downing Street.
Both meetings were preceded by a meeting of the British Irish Intergovernmental Conference (BIIGC), at which the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, presided.
Before his meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Trimble also echoed the enthusiasm of the British government for the early creation of the proposed International Monitoring Body (IMB) to monitor government and paramilitary "acts of completion" and oversee full implementation of the Belfast Agreement and the recent Joint Declaration.
At a joint press conference with Mr Cowen ahead of the BIIGC, Mr Murphy left open the possibility that British legislation to create the IMB would be presented to MPs before the summer recess and that it could be appointed initially in "shadow form" while awaiting the completion of the legislative processes in Westminster and the Dáil.
Signalling that the legislation might be dealt with when MPs resume business briefly in September, before the party conference season, Mr Murphy said: "Whenever that legislation is in its final stages of preparation, certainly we would hope to see the nature of the legislation even if it isn't formally introduced (to MPs)before we go down for the summer recess."
Downing Street is also known to be keen to have the IMB up and running as soon as possible and calculates that any report back signalling the cessation of paramilitary activities listed in the Joint Declaration could be crucial in creating the context for elections capable of leading to the restoration of devolved government.
However, while Mr Ahern acknowledged moves toward the creation of the IMB as "one of the work-in-progress issues", it remained unclear last night whether Dublin would conclude an agreement on the issue save in the context of an "acts of completion" deal and the setting of a firm date for the Assembly elections.
While the Taoiseach concluded yesterday's meetings without an election date, Downing Street emphasised the shared commitment to an autumn poll and Mr Blair's awareness of the risks of a political vacuum.
The Irish delegation also returned home happy with a BIIGC communiqué listing a detailed range of timetables and commitments for delivery on a range of Joint Declaration commitments not conditional upon "acts of completion".