British and Irish officials will continue discussions today in an attempt to secure enough agreement to hold round-table talks with the North's political parties tomorrow.
However, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, sounded a pessimistic note about the prospects of success. He indicated that the most he hoped for was the setting up of a "process" for the management of the contentious issues of decommissioning, demilitarisation and policing "over a difficult summer".
Such a "process", Government sources said later, would involve parties giving commitments to take certain action in relation to these three issues and an agreement to resume discussions on a full settlement of them after the summer. The Government's hope is that there would be enough in these commitments to allow the North's political institutions to avoid suspension.
The Taoiseach is expected to postpone his planned visit to Japan by a day if the roundtable talks go ahead. Mr Ahern is due to leave for Japan tomorrow morning, but will attend any round-table talks which take place tomorrow, leaving for Japan on Friday instead. Mr Tony Blair is also expected to join the talks.
A British government official last night said that the talks would not be held if substantial political differences remained between the parties and they appeared unwilling to compromise.
Mr Ahern gave a cautious assessment of the prospects in the Dail yesterday. "I do not think it is possible to get a conclusive and comprehensive final position on all the items which are not agreed, namely demilitarisation, decommissioning and policing," he said.
However, he added: "I do not understand why people would want to leave issues in a vacuum and not at least have a process which moves them safely into a future period. That is why I am anxious to try to come to at least that conclusion over the next few days."
Meanwhile, the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, has warned nationalist politicians that the new police service will be in place by September regardless of whether they decide to support it.
Dr Reid told pupils at the St Louis Catholic grammar school in Ballymena, Co Antrim, that he would deliver the service despite the problems in the peace process "come what may".
He said: "I hope that will happen with the active support of all sides of the community, but this September there will be a new police service for Northern Ireland, whatever else happens elsewhere in this process."
Dr Reid confirmed that more than 9,000 people had sought application packs for the service since the start of recruitment advertising a fortnight ago.
Mr Alex Maskey, a Sinn Fein MLA, criticised the decision to press ahead with setting up the new force. "What he is saying is, regardless of the current negotiations, he is determined to press ahead and impose a flawed policing solution. That is not acceptable and won't work," he said.
Commenting on the response to the recruitment campaign for the new police force, the SDLP chairman, Mr Alex Attwood, said: "We are in a period of transition - from the old politics and old policing of the past to the new politics and new policing. This is reflected in the initial response to recent police adverts."
However, he added that "further good work" was needed to achieve "the prize of policing and government with consent".