A delayed EU peacekeeping mission to Chad should be approved next week following the offer of helicopters and medical facilities by EU states.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said yesterday that operation commander Lieut Gen Pat Nash had told him he was now confident the mission could be launched.
"General Nash has told me that all going well we should have boots on the ground in mid-January," said Mr Ahern at the EU summit in Brussels.
"It looks likely that there have been enough contributions. Pat Nash has informed me there will be meeting on Wednesday, December 19th, and he has told me he is very confident."
It is understood Romania and Bulgaria will supply some of the 10-20 helicopters that are required for the mission and Italy will supply the necessary hospital facilities.
The EU has also asked a range of non-EU countries, including Russia, to help it get the necessary equipment to launch a peacekeeping mission designed to protect refugees in eastern Chad fleeing fighting in neighbouring Darfur.
Due to existing commitments in Afghanistan and Iraq many EU states are stretched militarily and the lack of key equipment has prevented the EU from launching the mission to Chad.
Meanwhile, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he had invited German chancellor Angela Merkel to visit Ireland in the run-up to the referendum on the EU reform treaty. "Minister Ahern and I had a discussion this morning where we reiterated that [invitation] and she did say she would attend," said the Taoiseach, who added that it was possible that French president Nicolas Sarkozy and other EU leaders would also visit.
"We have to treat the campaign very seriously. We'll all be working on it. It is an important campaign for the country," said Mr Ahern, who added that the Government was aware that many eurosceptics were planning to campaign in the Republic.
"They will come to cause mischief. Money will also find its way in and that even worries us more I suppose. Because you can look like you have a high-profile campaign by just putting large amounts of money in," added Mr Ahern.
Meanwhile, Mr Ahern held a bilateral meeting with British prime minister Gordon Brown to discuss the upcoming Varney Report on the tax policy in Northern Ireland.
The Government has been lobbying London to allow Northern Ireland to align its corporate tax rates with that of the Republic to boost foreign investment. But following the meeting Mr Ahern said Mr Brown would not approve this strategy and he did not think it would be recommended in the report.
"He won't change the tax rate but there are lots of other incentives that they can do," said Mr Ahern when asked about aligning corporation tax rates in Northern Ireland and the Republic. "We have put the pressure on for a single tax and we continue to do that but there are lots of ways short of that that the British government could help . . . I hope that some of those are addressed in the Varney report."