A meeting of the British-Irish Council scheduled for Dublin tomorrow was formally called off today.
The council session, involving Taoiseach Mr Ahern, the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior politicians from both sides of the border, as well as representatives from Scotland, Wales, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands, will now go ahead in Dublin Castle on February 5.
The official postponement was confirmed after telephone discussions this morning between Mr Ahern and Mr Blair.
The move had been widely anticipated following indications last night that both governments wanted to concentrate on efforts to reach final agreement on the future of the peace process.
Officials involved in the on-going push for a deal would also have been involved in tomorrow's Dublin meeting, and it was felt the event could prove a distraction.
Mr Blair's official spokesman said: “A lot of the politicians and officials involved who would be expected to attend are involved in discussions continuing from last week's visit, in relation to some of the outstanding difficulties.
"There has been a lot of intensive discussion over the weekend, and there will be more."
Sinn Fein reacted angrily to the suspension, saying the real reason was because of First Minister Mr David Trimble's refusal to nominate its ministers to cross-border institutions.
Mr Trimble said the decision to postpone the meeting was because of the ongoing political discussions.
“The view that was taken by the British and Irish governments was that to hold the British-Irish Council meeting would be a distraction in the context of those discussions which we hope will result in significant progress and the implementation of the Agreement."
But Mr Edwin Poots, of the anti-Agreement Democratic Unionist Party, said the suspension of the meeting was symptomatic of the crisis within the Belfast Agreement
PA