Efforts to secure political agreement leading to the restoration of Stormont institutions intensify this week.
The Irish and British governments have planned a series of talks culminating in a meeting between Mr Ahern and Mr Tony Blair in Downing Street on Thursday.
Government officials will continue to step up contacts with the Northern parties in the search for agreement on the restoration of powers to Belfast before the two heads of government return to Hillsborough for crunch talks next Monday, March 3rd.
The intensification of political activity comes amid warnings from the DUP that the British government was planning "the biggest list of concessions ever given by a free country to a terrorist organisation".
The Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, will hold separate meetings in Dublin tomorrow with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, and with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell. This meeting is expected to centre on the threat posed by dissident republicans.
The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, last night confirmed "extensive and concentrated negotiations with the two governments" had been "significantly intensified". But he warned that republicans sought more progress on issues ranging from policing and justice issues to British demilitarisation and human rights.
Sinn Féin representatives have been highlighting such issues in a flurry of statements over the weekend, while Mr Martin McGuinness confirmed a British view that a breakthrough was needed before delegations from Britain and Ireland went to Washington the week before St Patrick's Day.
Both Mr Adams and Mr McGuinness stressed yesterday that the involvement of unionists in the restoration of the political process was crucial.
Mr Adams said: "Unionists need to give clear and definitive commitments that they will be part of the political institutions and that they will sustain and stabilise these institutions."
Mr McGuinness told the Sunday Business Post that the agreement was more important than the political fortunes of the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble.
He added that political leaders need "to be put under pressure . . . to defend the Good Friday agreement, to ensure that the rights and entitlements promised to people in the North are delivered".
Last night, Sir Reg Empey, one of Mr Trimble's most senior colleagues, said he wanted a deal to restore devolution in place before Assembly elections scheduled for May 1st. He said the current talks were the last significant chance to revitalise the political process.
His comments followed a statement at the weekend from the Ulster Political Research Group, which is linked to the UDA, in which a 12-month period of "military inactivity" was declared. The group said it wanted to foster new political initiatives from within loyalism.