As the peace process enters its most critical stage Mr Ahern has attempted to steady concerns that the Belfast Agreement is in danger of collapsing.
Against the background of a heightened security alert in London and the UVF smuggling arms into Northern Ireland the Taoiseach, on a visit to the North yesterday, insisted the agreement must be fully implemented.
"It is a time for steady hands and to make as much progress as possible in difficult circumstances," he said in Armagh.
The mechanisms setting up the executive are due to be triggered by March 10th, but the logjam on decommissioning, fears of a dissident republican bomb attack on London, tensions between the IRA and the dissidents, the further arming of the UVF and "punishment" attacks are raising anxieties about the future of the political process.
Mr Ahern acknowledged the concerns but said politicians should not talk themselves "into a negative spin". "We have to make some progress by that date [March 10th], and if we don't we are into very difficult territory. "While we have made some useful progress we still have lost a lot of time, and it is important we get over these hurdles, and get on with it," Mr Ahern added. The Belfast Agreement should be implemented, he repeated, a comment generally viewed as indicating a Government wish for Sinn Fein to be allowed in an executive on March 10th ahead of IRA decommissioning.
Mr Ahern rejected Mr David Trimble's suggestion that the agreement may have to be "parked" if there was no movement on IRA disarmament by March 10th. The Taoiseach said he was "trying to satisfy all sides". The decommissioning issue should be resolved through Gen John de Chastelain's decommissioning body, he added.
Mr Ahern also held intensive talks with the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon. Mr Mallon said it had been another difficult week for the peace process. But Northern Ireland was faced with the stark choice of continuing with the peace process or "collapse into the violence of the past".
Downing Street also acknowledged the problems and the need for political progress. "These are difficult times. People need to face up to reality. Politics has got to solve this problem. Everybody is aware of the price of failure," a spokesman said.
Sir Reg Empey, a senior UUP Assembly member, said despite Mr Ahern's comments there was a review procedure in the Belfast Agreement which might have to be enacted. He insisted there was a demand for prior decommissioning in the agreement.
"We all want the agreement to work. But that requires all parties to it to meet their obligations," he said.
Mr Ahern made his call for steady nerves as the British Home Office confirmed that a review of security is under way, in line with the British government's policy of continuous monitoring of the potential threat from terrorism.
The Home Office confirmed the review following a Channel 4 programme featuring a threat from the Continuity IRA of a bomb attack on London. The programme was televised on Thursday night after the IRA admitted that dissident republicans in the "Real IRA" had stolen some of its weaponry. The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, responding to a statement from the 32 County Sovereignty Committee, understood to be linked to the "Real IRA", said he did not believe Committee members were under threat from the IRA.
The UVF, which is on ceasefire, claimed it had imported new weapons into Northern Ireland. The continuing high level of so-called punishment attacks is also raising fears of paramilitaries shifting back to a more earnest war footing.
Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein told the Guardian yesterday that were he to ask the IRA to start decommissioning "they would chase me out of the room".
