Democratic Unionist leader the Rev Ian Paisley today ruled reports suggesting that there has been a breakthrough in the talks to revive the Northern Ireland Assembly.
As the North Antrim MP arrived for a breakfast meeting in London with the Taoiseach Mr Ahern, he insisted there were still problems in the talks to be ironed out and there would not be a deal this week.
However DUP sources insisted that they were not ruling out progress in the days ahead.
Mr Paisley was also due to meet the Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair today, who also has planned talks with the Irish Prime Minister, where they will both assess the state of the negotiations since proposals for reviving devolution and removing paramilitary weapons were put to Sinn Fein and the DUP.
Mr Ahern is also due to have talks with the Sinn Fein leadership at the Irish Embassy and with the nationalist SDLP.
Parties were still today insisting the meetings were critical to the success of the current negotiations and would give an indication of whether the DUP were edging closer to striking a deal which would see them share power with Sinn Fein.
However a critical element in that deal would be a disarmament move by the IRA which the DUP would like to see having some sort of transparency, with either photographic or video evidence.
A DUP source said: "The gaps in the negotiations are certainly narrowing but at this stage, I don't think I can call it as to whether a deal will be struck. "There is some mileage in this left."