The Taoiseach and the British Prime Minister have confirmed that the package aimed at rescuing the Belfast Agreement will be presented to the Northern Ireland parties and published next week.
Speaking after a meeting at Mr Blair’s Sedgefield constituency this morning, Mr Ahern said the governments had done their utmost and were fully committed to implementing the Agreement in fully.
Mr Ahern said: "(We) had to put together a package and it is, we believe, a good package, acceptable to fully implement that part of the agreement and to move on in the process so that we can continue, as the Prime Minister said, to give stability, safety and security and that the people that have put in all of the effort as the people of Northern Ireland did in the first instance."
The Taoiseach added the behind-the-scenes work on drafting the proposals had been an "agonising" time in a process which started before Christmas and was now reaching fruition.
Mr Ahern said: "We had got some work to complete, we have done that today successfully."
Mr Blair said: "I would ask all the parties to consider them carefully, not to engage in knee-jerk reactions to them, consider these proposals carefully."
This was the first time he and Mr Ahern had been able to talk face to face since the package was brokered at Weston Park earlier this month, and they had been able to put finishing touches to the proposals.
He added: "As we said to you at Weston Park, there is no further negotiation of this. We are quite convinced ourselves as a government that we have the right package of proposals to put to people.
"We believe they are fair and they are reasonable, there will be difficulties of all kinds in them, but they represent the best way of breaking the remaining impasse in the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement."
It had been hoped that the two leaders would use today's talks as a platform for unveiling the package of proposals.
Instead they were forced to face a fresh crisis following a declaration by hard-line Ulster unionist MPs that their party should withdraw from the current negotiations and demand a new peace process.
It was the last chance for the two men to meet before Mr Blair leaves for a visit to the Caribbean and Latin America on Sunday.
SDLP deputy leader Mr Seamus Mallon said it was vital the Irish and British governments document really marked the end of the negotiations to resolve the problems in the peace process.
Mr Mallon said the most crucial factor in the document to be presented next week was the substance. That meant it would have to deliver the objectives of the Belfast Agreement, the institutions set up under those objectives and embody the ethos of the Belfast Agreement, he said.
Sinn Féin Assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly said the party would have preferred to see the package agreed by the two governments released today.
PA