The British and Irish governments must give renewed momentum to the Good Friday agreement, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said yesterday
Last week Mr Ahern and British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair announced that they would hold urgent talks with Northern Ireland's pro-agreement parties to rescue the peace process.
The First Minister and Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, faces pressure from within his own party to take sanctions against Sinn Féin in the wake of fresh allegations about IRA activity in Colombia, and involvement in the recent violence in the Short Strand area of east Belfast.
Mr Ahern, interviewed on Sky News's Sunday with Adam Boulton programme, said: "I think it is a good time for both Tony Blair and myself and the pro-agreement parties to get together and try to see what we can do to de-escalate the tensions that are there, to build up further confidence in the agreement, and try to move on."
He said no date had been fixed for the new talks, though they were likely to take place between now and the end of the month.
Mr Ahern insisted it was time for an end to violence and for all the parties to embrace democratic politics. "There is no place for ongoing violence. The people have voted for that a long time ago, to get away from that violence. It is a period now to see what new moves we can make.
"It is not a question of blaming anybody, I think it's just a question of renewing our support for the peaceful resolution of difficulties of the past, and to make sure that we can bring it on, and we don't slip back, even if it's only sporadic, even if only in some locations.
"I want to see the end of the IRA and the circumstances that can allow that.
"At the same time I acknowledge what Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in particular have done these last number of years, moving their entire communities away from this, and of course there has to come a time, and the sooner the better, where there is no paramilitary activity."