The Taoiseach has ruled out a general election before summer 2002, saying he had "put it up to" colleagues to argue for an autumn 2001 poll, and none had done so.
In ebullient mood at the end of a nine-day visit to South America, Mr Ahern said that by summer he meant May, June or even July.
Asked if he could hold one in April he said: "Summer doesn't start in April."
He insisted that despite constant speculation, he had been determined since first in office to have a full five-year term until summer 2002.
Mr Ahern indicated yesterday that his determination to stay the full course had been fired by the early speculation, shortly after he became Taoiseach in June 1997, that the Ray Burke affair and other revelations from the tribunals would break up his coalition with the Progressive Democrats.
"To be frank," he told reporters, "in September 1997 when people started annoying me - literally annoying me - by saying the Government wouldn't last until Christmas, I decided then that the Government would go to the summer of 2002.
"I have never once said otherwise," he said, dismissing the speculation that arose from remarks he made to a parliamentary party meeting.
He said he had read in the press that some of his colleagues "were going around saying that they thought it should be the autumn".
He therefore asked them to come and speak to him if that was what they thought. "All I did was put it up to them, and none of them has contacted me."
Mr Ahern also said he had virtually ruled out a second referendum on the Nice Treaty before the next general election. Comments he made last week suggested that an abortion referendum was also unlikely before then.
However, sources close to him suggest that in damping down speculation he may have been seeking to ensure a public abortion debate did not start until he had a clear, agreed Government position behind which his Ministers and backbenchers would unite.
He also dismissed suggestions that Ireland should withdraw from the EU Rapid Reaction Force as a means of winning support for Nice from those concerned about neutrality.
"We are part of it, and people voted for it by 60-40" in the Amsterdam Treaty, he said.