The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Ahern, has praised the DUP's approach to resolving outstanding problems in the peace process. Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor, reports.
Referring to Thursday's "significant" meeting between a DUP delegation, led by the Rev Ian Paisley and the Government in Dublin, Mr Ahern spoke of the agreement between the two sides.
He said: "I don't want to be too specific, but we have to make sure first of all that paramilitarism from all shades, from all sectors, is finalised and put aside and all weapons are decommissioned in as short a timescale as possible," he told BBC Radio Ulster yesterday.
"That is what we are working to and we agree with the DUP and other parties in this respect," he added.
Mr Ahern said he looked forward to meeting the Northern Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, when he returned to full-time work after his illness. Mr Murphy took ill during his party's annual conference earlier this week.
Officials at the Northern Ireland Office said Mr Murphy was recovering at home in his constituency and was keeping up with developments pending his expected return to Belfast towards the end of next week.
Mr Ahern said Thursday's talks dealt with issues first raised at Leeds Castle last month.
"We have to keep as a keynote the issue of decommissioning, paramilitarism, the end to that and, at the same time, ensure that the Good Friday agreement which was voted for by the vast majority of people on this island in a democratic way - we have to ensure that we cannot in any way transgress the key fundamentals in that agreement," he said.
His positive tone followed an upbeat assessment of progress by the US special envoy, Dr Mitchell Reiss.
Addressing the National Committee on US Foreign Policy in New York, Dr Reiss said: "The talks at Leeds Castle demonstrated that the republican movement is now on the verge of a historic transformation. Ten years after the first IRA ceasefire, Irish republicans have indicated that they are willing to pursue their objectives exclusively through the democratic process.
"In Sinn Féin parlance, the ballot box has displaced the Armalite."
Commending the "heroic patience" of the Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister, Dr Reiss outlined what he saw as the reasons for the republican shift.
He said republican electoral successes and an acceptance, after September 11th and the Madrid train bombings, that democracy and terror were incompatible, had taken them to a point where they would opt for exclusively peaceful means.
"As those who follow this process closely know, republican thinking has been moving towards this point for some time, but Leeds Castle will likely be remembered as the moment when this strategy was formally accepted as official policy," he said.
Turning to the unionist parties and the loyalist paramilitaries he added: "It is critical that we work to ensure that the republican movement follows through on this commitment and that all the loyalist paramilitary groups follow the lead of the IRA.
"We must also make sure that the devolved institutions are restored in a stable manner that fully preserves power-sharing, a fundamental principle of the agreement."