Ireland outlined its game plan today for the final crucial week of negotiations on the stalled European constitution, saying it was still confident of brokering a deal.
It circulated revised drafts of parts of the treaty to its EU partners and said it would send out a second document before next Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.
"This second paper will not, however, cover some of the most sensitive institutional questions - voting in the council, the commission and seats in the European Parliament," the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said in a statement.
"(Those issues) will be discussed by heads of state and government when they meet next week."
Mr Ahern has been trying since the start of the year to cajole the bloc's leaders into agreeing a constitution capable of carrying the EU forward as it grapples with enlargement and the prospect of agreeing a new budget and opening talks with potential future members.
Mr Ahern has always acknowledged that talks will go down to the wire and that the main sticking points, particularly the allocation of voting power among the EU's 25 states, will not be resolved before then.
The 75 pages of revised drafts dealt with less contentious issues in over 40 policy areas, including energy, transport and health. The revisions were relatively minor.
"We believe that there is now broad consensus on (these) issues," Mr Ahern said. "We hope that Monday's meeting of foreign ministers will confirm that no fundamental problems remain in these areas and that no further discussion of them is required."