A border poll on a united Ireland would be polarising and divisive, the Minister for Foreign Affairs has said.
Speaking at the 24th Plenary Meeting of the British-Irish Inter-parliamentary council Mr Cowen said he would have "deep reservations about the wisdom of an border poll in the near future and I fear that it would distract from the urgent challenges we now need to address".
Mr Cowen said "a sustained period of political calm" was needed in the immediate term.
Mr Cowen address unionist concerns by saying: "The Agreement recognised that, if the problems in Northern Ireland, stemmed from a failed hegemony of orange over green, the situation would be equally shameful and unworkable if it merely reversed the order".