The Taoiseach has firmly backed the EU push to limit US control over post-war Iraq, saying he will tell President Bush today that the UN should have the leading role.
As Washington continues to prepare an interim authority of US officials and Iraqi exiles, Mr Ahern told reporters in Dublin yesterday that he favoured a new administration run by the international community.
He said the UN should be "at the heart" of the post-war administration of Iraq. He supported the view of the UN Secretary-general, Mr Kofi Annan, that any new administration "will have greater legitimacy if it is under the ambit of the international community".
Asked whether he would accede to a Labour Party call on him to tell the US President that the Irish people saw the war as illegal, he said: "I've said from the outset I would be saying that, so there is no need for people to tell me."
During a 20-minute phone call, Mr Annan yesterday told Mr Ahern of his concerns that any new administration should "command widespread legitimacy and support". The Taoiseach initiated yesterday's contact, and the two men agreed to speak again tomorrow following the Hillsborough summit.
A Government spokeswoman said last night that the Taoiseach "told Mr Annan that Ireland wants to do everything in our capacity to help the people of Iraq and to ensure the rightful place of the United Nations in post-war Iraq.
"He emphasised that Ireland is fully committed to working with the US and its EU partners to ensure a central role for the UN."
Earlier, Mr Ahern told reporters that today's meeting at Hillsborough gave him "a unique opportunity" to relay to President Bush the UN view.
"I have spoken to most of my European colleagues who have not had the chance of being able to address Tony Blair and certainly not the President. I will be able in our own modest way to deliver a very important message and I will do that."
Now that the food-for-oil programme in Iraq had resumed, he said, there was serious discussion of the country's post-war reconstruction and administration.
"We also want to achieve a position that the UN will be at the heart of that. I will have a unique opportunity which I know other members of the UN would like to have of actually being able to give that view of the United Nations," he said.
In relation to Northern Ireland, he said it was "a crucial week for us". He hoped that he and the British Prime Minister would finish work on the joint government plan for the restoration of the North's political institutions.
"We have worked hard since October to get to this position. I think things are going well but we have been in good positions before as we get to the last few days and they get unstuck.
"There are very fundamental issues for the parties to address and agree on. We have carefully talked to all of the pro-agreement parties on the contents and we will have to wait and see what their position is then."