The Taoiseach has said he sees no circumstances in which Sinn Féin would be in Government with Fianna Fáil after the next general election.
In an interview yesterday, Mr Ahern also said he believed the Government would run its full term until 2007. While he would have no difficulty doing business with the Labour Party, he believed Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats would shape the State's economic policy for the next eight years or more.
Mr Ahern said he believed Sinn Féin was on the way towards embracing totally peaceful means. But their economic policy was "the length and breadth of the country apart" from Fianna Fáil's.
"I do hope that Sinn Féin finish the transformation to totally peaceful means," Mr Ahern told Today FM's Sunday Supplement programme. "I think they are on the road to doing that," he added.
"I haven't got a clue what their economic policy is, Éire Nua I think was the last one they wrote and that is a long time ago. But they are against inward investment and they are against multi-nationals."
He said he would have no difficulty working with the Labour Party, and had worked well with them in government in the past.
"Mary Harney and Michael McDowell are caring people as much as anybody else. She is passionate about trying to help the elderly of this country, to try to improve the problems we have in the A&E and it's a pleasure working with them on this agenda," Mr Ahern said.