The restoration of the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive could happen before Christmas if progress can be made in talks with the DUP, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has made clear.
"We would like to achieve in the immediate future an Assembly and an Executive and then move on into the new year," said Mr Ahern, adding that "four, or five issues" remain outstanding.
Earlier, the Taoiseach held nearly two hours of talks in his constituency office with the Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams and chief negotiator Mr Martin McGuinness.
Significant disagreements remain between the Northern parties over the accountability of the Executive to the Assembly and the rules governing the election of the First and Deputy First Ministers.
Supporting a review of the Good Friday agreement, Mr Ahern said: "It is not an unreasonable position for anybody to say that after six years, that you would have a review of the mechanisms."
Expressing confidence that separate talks with Sinn Féin and the DUP can bear fruit, the Taoiseach went on: "I do believe that we can make progress. We never fail. We always make an incremental judgment."
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Dermot Ahern, who also attended yesterday's meeting, intends to meet the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mr Paul Murphy, soon.
Following the meeting, Mr McGuinness said of the decision of the DUP leader the Rev Ian Paisley to accept the "fundamentals" of the Good Friday agreement: "That is a huge statement which the people of Ireland, nationalist Ireland, republican Ireland and not least the unionists in the North need to think very seriously about."
Expressing concerns, Mr Adams said: "It is inevitable, we believe, that SF and the DUP, with the governments and all of the other parties will come to an agreement.
"But it can only be on the basis of the Good Friday agreement. there is no other way around it.
"The DUP obviously have concerns and we are open to those concerns," he said.
Describing the need for equality as "the watchword" of a Northern settlement, Mr Adams said: "We won't have a better opportunity than the one that we have now."
Questioned about indications that the British army believes it could cut down its garrison to 5,000 within months of a final deal, Mr Adams was dismissive.
Republicans in south Armagh and elsewhere would not believe promises, he said.
"Tell them about it. They have heard it until they are blue in the faces. There is very little evidence of that on the ground.
"Local people in those areas, which are proud republican heartlands, have more unwanted contact with British troops than at any time in the last 30 years," he told journalists.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Adams expressed "deep concern at the positions being put to us by the two governments which in our view breach the fundamentals of the Good Friday agreement".
The positions being pushed by the Irish and British governments, he said, "breach the fundamentals" of the agreement, despite Dublin and London's insistence otherwise. "However, I do believe that a deal between Sinn Féin, the DUP, the two governments and the other parties is inevitable. But we can only do so on terms that are based on equality.
"I have yet to discover the DUP's contribution to achieving this deal. In fact it appears to me that they are working to a longer time-frame than everyone else, including that set out by the two governments.
"If we are to achieve a restoration of stable and sustainable political institutions then I believe that there is no better time than now to do that business," Mr Adams declared.
