No there is no way to restart the timer. Perhaps you should consider if your app really needs to do this.
Quote from Apple:
"The only applications that should disable the idle timer are mapping
applications, games, or similar programs with sporadic user
interaction."
If you app does need to turn the idleTimer off then perhaps it can stay off till the app goes in to the background?
You could try adding an alert at the end of the timed event
UIAlertView *myAlert = [[UIAlertView alloc] initWithTitle:@"Timer Complete" message:@"Timer ended, well don you" delegate:nil cancelButtonTitle:@"OKAY" otherButtonTitles:nil];
[myAlert show];
[myAlert release];
Omit the release if you're using ARC. This may light the screen backup, then perhaps you don't need to mess with the idle timer.