The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, are expected to meet on the margins of the European Council gathering in Brussels over today and tomorrow to further assess the prospects of a political breakthrough in Northern Ireland.
While the mood remains generally positive, sources say it will probably be next week before it is established if a deal can be achieved that would lead to November elections and a functioning Executive and Assembly.
Sinn Féin is expected to brief its grassroots on latest developments, while UUP leader Mr David Trimble will address his party's annual conference in Armagh on Saturday.
Meanwhile the SDLP and the PUP had talks on the latest developments in the North in Government Buildings in Dublin yesterday.
The PUP's Mr David Irvine met the Taoiseach as part of Mr Ahern's final round of meetings with leaders of all the pro-agreement parties.
An SDLP delegation met the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, who rejected any notion that they were left out of weekend talks.
The SDLP delegation, including Mr Alex Attwood, Mr Denis Haughey and Mr Sean Farren, met separately with Mr Cowen and the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell.
The SDLP has been angered that both governments are taking it for granted as they seek to get agreement between Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionists.
However, Mr Cowen said yesterday he did not accept that they are being ignored.
Later, Mr Farren said: "We believe that the process needs to be inclusive. We want to stress and keep stressing to both governments that that inclusivity needs to be respected.
"The SDLP has a right to be there. The SDLP as everybody knows was one of the prime architects of the Good Friday Agreements and one of the prime movers since."
Unhappy with the focus on Sinn Féin and the Ulster Unionists, Mr Attwood said: "Private deals with private parties with private armies end up with people crying.
"If they fail to step up to the mark, call the election anyway and let the people of the North speak," he said after the meetings in Dublin.
Negotiations must be carried out with all parties to ensure that none are left out and that "positions of weakness" are not created, he added.
The SDLP now wants to ensure that "there is no further impeding" by both parties "of the democratic wishes of the people of Ireland", said Mr Attwood
He said, in particular, Sinn Féin must show that it "no longer resists the end of paramilitarism and that Ulster Unionism no longer resists the operation of all-Ireland institutions".
"We must ensure that the Irish and British governments ensure that those who failed to step up to the mark in the past now step up to the mark," said Mr Attwood.
"They can no longer be allowed to impede the implementation of the agreement or hold up, as they continue to do, Irish democracy and the setting of an election date in the North."
He rejected suggestions that the SDLP will lose out to Sinn Féin.