The latest effort by the Irish and British governments to get Northern Ireland's Assembly and Executive back into action must be the last, the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, has warned. Mark Hennessy, Political Correspondent, reports.
Speaking in Dublin following a meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Blair said: "Everybody realises that the next time we get this set of institutions up and running, that that has got to be it."
He continued: "There is no point in doing this unless we get it absolutely right. We have got to get it absolutely right."
The governments are determined to get negotiations underway after the European Parliament elections but before the marching season gets into full swing in Northern Ireland.
However, the two leaders conceded that there was no chance of getting the Assembly and Executive back into action before October, if then - nearly a year after last November's elections saw the DUP and Sinn Féin take poll positions.
Declaring that "a road map" is now in existence, the Taoiseach said: "We are determined to secure the restoration of devolved government in Northern Ireland as soon as possible."
Expressing cautious optimism, he went on: "We have the basis of it now. We have discussed the matters with the political parties. I honestly believe if we were to go into the autumn, almost a year after the elections, not in that position we would be in a very serious position."
The pace of events has begun to accelerate in the last 10 days, following a series of meetings between the Taoiseach and Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, which have led to an apparent temporary suspension in the verbal hostilities between the Government and Sinn Féin.
Under the still developing Anglo-Irish proposals, the British government will make quiet moves to reduce further the British army's presence along the Border and elsewhere, along with other demilitarisation measures left over from last year's Joint Declaration and from the negotiations last October that fell at the last hurdle. Such a move could prepare the way for a further IRA act of decommissioning.
However, the DUP has still much to do to prepare its supporters for the possibility of sharing power with Sinn Féin.
Mr Ahern said the October talks had come within a hair's breadth of success: "The rest of that is history now. I believe that we have a road map. I believe, having had the opportunity of having discussions with the parties last week, that we can achieve it, whether it requires stages to do that. We obviously have to get through the marching season . . . We could really get to finality in the autumn."
Mr Blair said: "A lot of intensive work is being done by our officials at the moment, not always visible to you, and that is probably as it should be, but I hope very much that before the summer we are able to go into an intensive negotiation. It is only worth doing that, frankly, if we have a clear basis for doing that."