The Government will reopen contacts with Sinn Féin early next week, despite its belief that the IRA was involved in the Northern Bank robbery, the Taoiseach has said.
Speaking in Beijing last night, Mr Ahern said: "I have to make a calculated judgment: is non-engagement better?
"My sense is that non-engagement has never worked in my lifetime, even if I don't feel at most enthusiastic. My sense is that I have to engage," he told The Irish Times.
The Taoiseach's declaration is likely to lead to criticism from some quarters convinced that the Sinn Féin should suffer penalties for the IRA's alleged involvement in the £26 million robbery.
Mr Ahern said last night: "All of the parties have been on to us. That is the reality.
"We are in a difficult position, if you look how close we were in March 2003, October 2003 and later.
"We are back a long way. That is the reality. Non-engagement would only put us back further," he said.
The Taoiseach declined to enter the controversy caused by the refusal of a leading Sinn Féin member, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, to label the killing of Ms Jean McConville by the IRA in the early 1970s as a crime.
Saying that he had not seen RTÉ's Questions And Answers, where Mr McLaughlin made the remarks, the Taoiseach said: "I am not aware of the programme, or what was said.
"We have some difficulties in the peace process. We have not been able to get a fully comprehensive agreement as we had worked for so long and so hard.
"We are in a stalemate position. The one thing that I am conscious of is that, whatever the arguments, we have to try and find a way on.
"The one thing I know in my political lifetime is that when there is stalemate and a vacuum that is when we get into problems," he said.
He said he had spent much of the time on the flight to China on Monday in discussions with some of his leading officials to try to find ways of moving matters forward.
