The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, has praised the attitude of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to the republican movement during the election campaign.
Mr Trimble said the line taken by Mr Ahern "both in terms of urging them to complete decommissioning by May 2003 and saying that until the IRA was disbanded he couldn't regard Sinn Féin as being fully a normal political party" was one he welcomed.
"It's a line that I would heartily endorse and one that I would be inclined to recommend to John Reid that he might like to consider saying something of a similar nature," he said.
Mr Trimble was speaking after an hour-long meeting with the Taoiseach and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, at Government Buildings yesterday. The meeting was also attended by the North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Mark Durkan.
Mr Trimble said he and Mr Durkan felt it was appropriate to travel to Dublin to "restart or reconsider where we are in terms of British-Irish Council and North-South Ministerial Council activity" after the general election.
He said alleged new links between three Sinn Féin members and Marxist rebels in Colombia were not discussed. The allegations were contained in a Channel 4 documentary broadcast on Sunday night.
He congratulated Mr Ahern on his "significant" victory in the election. He said there was the prospect of having a strong stable government in the Republic for the next five years which would be "a considerable advantage to all of us".
Mr Durkan described the meeting as positive and businesslike. They looked "at serious issues" and "to see how best we can continue to work together in the interests of everyone in the total spirit of the full agreement".
Mr Ahern said the meeting allowed them to prepare for the British-Irish Council meeting in Jersey in a few weeks.