The Taoiseach last night made it clear that he would regard a referendum on Irish unity in the North in the near future as premature and potentially damaging to the peace process.
Delivering the annual Heyck Lecture to the Kellogg Business School in Chicago's Northwestern University, Mr Ahern said:
"While I support the provisions of the Good Friday agreement which allow for the holding of such a poll at a time when it appears that there may be a majority in Northern Ireland in favour of such an outcome," the timing of such a referendum called for "careful judgment and consultation between the Irish and British governments.
"I would share the concern of many observers that holding such a poll prematurely could serve to polarise the situation," the Taoiseach went on, "and could distract from the work of healing and good and fair government that we are trying to achieve under the Good Friday agreement."
Mr Ahern also touched on recent expressions of US concern about the alienation of loyalists from the agreement and the fear that the North could become a "cold place" for Protestants.
"We need to take care to clarify the terms of this debate," he warned. "We need to avoid any implication that the equality agenda is now serving to advantage nationalists and to disadvantage unionists.
"This clearly would be to seriously misconstrue what is envisaged. Equality is neither a unionist nor a nationalist agenda. It is a right of both and the essential basis for a stable system."
The challenge was to eliminate disadvantage in both communities, he said. "Poor educational attainment is just as socially corrosive on the unionist Shankill Road as it is on the nationalist Falls Road.
"The lack of employment opportunities in west and north Belfast is equally demoralising for both communities.
"In seeking to address these problems, we must recognise and act on their commonality. A segmented approach which, however unintentionally, attaches priority to one community over another merely displaces the alienation from one side of the equation to the other."
Once it was clear the debate was not about rolling back the equality agenda, the Taoiseach said, he would have no problem with specific programmes to assist the plight of deprived unionist communities.
Speaking of the solidarity which Irish people felt for the US since September 11th, Mr Ahern said: "We are proud that there are many Irish names on the roll of honour of September 11th, as there are on so many other rolls of honour in American history."
He added: "At a time when people can be dismissive of the craft of politics, I like to think that the Northern Ireland peace process will stand as a vindication of what can be achieved by political action and leadership, even in the face of a very poisonous legacy of history."
On the "Boston-versus-Berlin" debate, the Taoiseach put himself firmly on the fence. "Pundits in Ireland sometimes amuse themselves by debating the respective merits of our European and American relationships, as if somehow they were bound to be in conflict," he said.
"I may be spoiling the fun of an argument, but to me it seems blindingly obvious that they are complementary."
Tomorrow night Mr Ahern attends the Ireland Fund annual dinner where he will be presented with an award for his contribution to the peace process. He leaves the US on Thursday morning.