Labour, Fine Gael and the Greens have said they are committed to achieving the UN target on development aid by 2010 - two years in advance of date set out by the Taoiseach yesterday.
Labour foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins told ireland.comhis party had published a Bill in June calling for the 2010 target to be enshrined in law.
Mr Higgins said: "The only way to make our Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments binding is to enshrine them in law".
He said: "The Government's position is in contrast to the decision taken by the Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs, endorsed by Irish NGOs, which unanimously backed the 2010 date."
A Fine Gael spokesman said there was no formal front bench commitment yet to achieve the 2010 target date if elected at the next election, but he said the party supported the target in principle. He said if the party's was in government now, it would commit to the 2010 target.
Fine Gael foreign affairs spokesman Bernard Allen said last night: "The Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee has called for the target to be met by 2010, which gives the Government an additional three years to meet the UN aid target, and would be 10 years after the promise was made initially."
Mr Allen said: "Since the Taoiseach reneged on the 2007 target date, 2010 should have been the goal, but the Taoiseach has delayed for yet another two years."
A Green Party spokesman said the three parties were broadly in agreement on the 2010 date but there had been no official agreement.
He said the majority of aid agencies had insisted on a five-year period for achieving the target and the Green Party supported this.
The Taoiseach pledged at a UN World Summit last night that Ireland would reach the 0.7 per cent of gross national product in ODA by 2012.
Mr Ahern promised five years ago that this target would be met by 2007, but he has now postponed achieving this for another five years.
