Sinn Féin's chief negotiator welcomed yesterday's meeting between the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minster, Mr Tony Blair. Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor, reports.
Mr Martin McGuinness applauded "their renewed focus on the peace process".
He confirmed that Sinn Féin had taken part in in-depth discussions with the Government and with officials.
Government spokesmen have talked up the importance of ongoing discussions since Mr Blair and Mr Ahern hosted talks with the Northern parties at Hillsborough in March.
"Our discussions intensified over recent days," Mr McGuinness said yesterday. "We urged them to adopt an urgent and focused approach to ensure forward movement. I, therefore, welcome \ meeting between the two governments."
In an apparent reference to last month's report on paramilitary activity by the Independent Monitoring Commission which Sinn Féin and the Progressive Unionist Party have derided, the Mid Ulster MP added: "We left the two governments in no doubt about the difficulties that recent developments have created, nor should we underestimate the deep difficulties facing us."
However, he added: "Despite these difficulties I am firmly of the view that, with political will, good faith and determination on all sides, early progress can be made."
A senior Sinn Féin source has told The Irish Times that involvement by the two governments, and the Irish Government in particular, was key to political progress.
The party believes the DUP is playing a "long game", and will not end its refusal to engage in face-to-face discussions with Sinn Féin about the restoration of Stormont unless pressed by London and Dublin.
The DUP leader has castigated the Ulster Unionists for "failing to agree a meeting between the two parties". The Rev Ian Paisley claims that Mr David Trimble has set a condition of the DUP talking to Sinn Féin before a meeting between their two parties can be held.
A meeting of the unionist parties was needed "to allow David Trimble the opportunity to divulge to the DUP delegation exactly what he had agreed to concede to Sinn Féin/IRA before the sequencing malfunctioned on the 21st October".
Mr McGuinness referred yesterday to a report that Sinn Féin's fundraising capacity abroad is to be curtailed by the British government.
British parties are prohibited from foreign fundraising, but the ban does not apply to Northern parties.
A Sinn Féin representative described the report as "speculation", but added: "If this speculation is correct it is another example of the lengths the British system will go to in response to the growing support for Sinn Féin across this island.
"Irish people who have been forced to leave Ireland as a direct consequence of British policies in Ireland have an absolute right to contribute to the process of democratic change, and to support those who have been at the heart of the peace process on this island."