US President George W. Bush will almost certainly visit Ireland for a summit with European Union leaders in May or June, the Taoiseach Mr Ahern said today.
"We expect that we will have an EU-US summit here," Mr Ahern said. "As of now it is definitely intended to go ahead. There is not a date or a location, which really depends on when it is."
A Bush visit to Ireland had been widely expected during the Irish presidency of the European Union, which ends in June.
Mr Ahern said it was "likely to be in late May or June" and hinted it might not be in Dublin. "We have so many meetings in Dublin in May and June," he said.
Relations between the Americans and the EU were soured last year by the Iraq war, bitterly opposed by German Chancellor Mr Gerhard Schroeder and French President Mr Jacques Chirac.
But Mr Ahern said there had been a thaw in transatlantic relations.
"Schroeder is going to America shortly. There is talk that President Bush will go to France," he said. "There is a lot of action going on and we are working hard to make it positive at all levels."