British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Irish counterpart Bertie Ahern will hold talks on Thursday aimed at re-launching the deadlocked Northern Ireland peace process, Ahern told Irish radio on Sunday.
Ahern did not say where the talks would take place while Blair's office refused to confirm any details.
"This is an important meeting," Ahern told RTE state radio.
"We have to work out over the next short period just how we are going to try to get a working executive and working institutions back up again."
London and Dublin have been presiding since February 3 over talks to re-launch Northern Ireland's executive and assembly, which were created through the 1998 peace accords but suspended amid allegations of IRA spying in October 2002.
Ahern said the two governments would discuss whether there was any chance for the institutions to be restored during the coming months, and if not, what would be the ways forward. Those are "the two issues we have to look at on Thursday", Ahern said.