The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern has told his counterpart in Bulgaria that Ireland will give its full support to his country's European Union accession bid in 2007.
Speaking after a meeting with Prime Minister Simeon Saxe Coburg Gotha and Bulgarian government officials in Sofia this morning, Mr Ahern said he would use Ireland's forthcoming EU presidency to support both Bulgaria and Romania's bids to become EU members.
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The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
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Mr Ahern will travel to Bucharest later today to meet Prime Minister Adrian Nastase of Romania.
Bulgaria and Romania are progressing in tandem towards EU membership - but they lag behind the ten countries which are to become EU members next May. The countries both hope to join the European Union by 2007.
Bulgaria has completed 26 of the 31 criteria laid down for accession under the Copenhagen accord. These criteria include rules concerning the operation of democracy, human rights laws, the stability of the economy and the ability to adopt EU laws upon accession.
"All of the chapters have to be concluded," Mr Ahern said today. "We will work with Bulgaria to complete our discussions."
However, Romania has made less progress in achieving the criteria, leading to concerns in Bulgaria, whose bid is linked to its neighbour's.
Bulgaria's bid is also being complicated by its dependence on ageing Russian-made nuclear reactors at the Kozlodoui plant, which the EU wants scaled-down. The Bulgarian economy is heavily dependent on the revenue generated by selling power from these reactors to Turkey.