The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has urged parties to the peace process not to rush to judgment over the police raids on Sinn Féin's Belfast offices at the weekend.
"It is not a time to be judgmental. It's a time, I think, for us to be fairly clear-sighted not just about the short term but about the longer term, and see how we can manage this," he said.
Speaking in Dublin ahead of his meeting with the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, Mr Ahern cited "an enormous amount of tensions around the process", adding the events of last week had "made life very difficult".
Asked would he call directly on the Ulster Unionist leader Mr David Trimble not to rush to judgement, Mr Ahern replied: "Well, I think, yes. I think everybody, we have to try to work a way through it, and we have to try and gather more information about precisely what happened. And as I said on Saturday and say it again, why such large numbers of the police force went in to collect two disks and a few papers?
"I understand people's concerns. I understand people's difficulties, and I understand what people are saying on all sides. What happened on Friday does heighten the tensions from different perspectives. I know it does for unionists and I know it does for Sinn Féin and, of course, creates difficulties for the SDLP."
Mr Ahern is due to meet representatives from the SDLP today and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, tomorrow.
He noted: "The real message in the meetings in the next few days is just how we can manage this. It is difficult. There are problems. It's no good anyone denying that. There are a lot of tensions. But we have to try to handle them and manage them as always."
Of the threat to the North's political institutions, Mr Ahern said: "Clearly, I do not want to see the institutions suspended because you recall all of the difficulties and problems and time it took us to get them up and working. So we have to be very careful about doing anything that then you have to pick it all back up again." Mr Ahern reiterated his desire to see the IRA disband, saying "I still think that ultimately is the way that it has to go."
