Mr Ahern is meeting his Spanish and Polish counterparts this week
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The European Union's Irish presidency relaunched efforts to reach agreement on an EU constitution on Monday at meetings in Belgium and Spain.
Foreign Minister Brian Cowen said a Brussels meeting of foreign ministers revealed "considerable common ground" as well as "unresolved complex issues".
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Bertie Ahern held talks in Madrid with his Spanish counterpart Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
Spain and Poland were the strongest critics of a text rejected in December.
Urgency
Mr Ahern has held consultations with a number of EU leaders and will report to a summit in Brussels in March on the prospects for agreement.
The Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller is due in Dublin later this week.
Mr Cowen said he had received "strong encouragement from his counterparts to "proceed with a real sense of urgency".
"Clearly people want to see priority given to this," he added.
"There is a fair degree of realisation that we need, if we can at all, to resolve this matter before the (June) European elections."
Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz agreed that it was important to find consensus soon - before the enlargement of the EU in 1 May.
'Practical experience'
However, he showed no sign of compromising on the issue of voting weights in the Council of Ministers, which prevented agreement on schedule at December's summit.
He insisted the EU should stick with voting arrangements agreed at Nice in 2000, which give Poland and Spain almost as many votes as the four biggest EU members.
He said Europe should "get some practical experience" with the Nice system before deciding on any changes.
"There is not rational argument to take any final decision concerning this... right now," he added.
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