Tensions were so high during talks to broker a peace deal in Northern Ireland that high profile politicians almost fought among themselves, according to former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

Mr Ahern said intense wrangling between the political protagonists leading up to the Good Friday Agreement gave rise to some of the most venomous verbal exchanges he has ever heard.

In an interview, to be broadcast on BBC Radio Ulster this Friday, Mr Ahern spoke candidly about his relationship with the key players involved, events behind the scenes during the negotiations and speculation linking him to the Irish presidency.

“The level of abuse I heard grown adults give to each other has never been surpassed, and that includes on the back streets of Dublin or on football pitches,” he said. “There were no holds barred, I can tell you.”

Mr Ahern said he believed one blazing row in particular helped clear the air between the rivals. He said of the 2001 fracas that the politicians involved benefited as “the following morning they all got up and they all felt good because they had said what they thought”.

According to a report in the Sunday Times, Mr Ahern told presenter David Dunseith of his many run-ins with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, during prolonged peace talks. “I had rows with them, particularly with Gerry,” Ahern said.

“I tried to take a balanced view because I was going to be no use to the process if I took a one-sided southern, republican-|nationalist viewpoint.”

Despite their disagreements, Mr Ahern said he admired Adams and Martin McGuinness because “they have made hard decisions for militant republicans? and they tried to move forward”.

He also reflected on his relationship with then Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, and in particular a spat between the pair on the morning of Good Friday in 1998. According to Jonathan Powell, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Mr Ahern came close to smacking Lord Trimble after the former unionist leader was “appallingly rude” to him.

“At some of the meetings with delegations he (Mr Trimble) would let fly? I got a good insight into why he couldn't do things,” Mr Ahern said.

Asked if he came close to hitting Trimble he replied: “Maybe that is the way I looked. They reckoned in the room I had taken so much abuse from him that maybe I looked as if I would, but I don't think I ever was. It never got to that.”

Away from the spotlight the relationship was much less fraught though, according to Mr Ahern.

“When I was one-to-one with David I got on particularly well with him? you knew where you stood,” he said.

Mr Ahern retired as Taoiseach last May, though he has kept a high profile in Irish public life.

Despite ruling himself out for the presidency in the past, speculation is mounting he may stand when Mary McAleese's second term comes to an end in 2011.