The former peace talks chairman, Senator George Mitchell, will meet Northern Ireland political leaders in Belfast this morning amid pressure from Sinn Fein for White House intervention to break the deadlock over decommissioning.
Washington, however, has dampened speculation about any initiative to coincide with next week's visit to the US by the North's party leaders. While the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, spoke yesterday of a "distinct possibility" that President Clinton would try to resolve the decommissioning row, he told The Irish Times last night he had no specific knowledge of such a move.
Meanwhile, as efforts continue today to resolve the North-South dimension of the Belfast Agreement, and to agree on the number of ministerial departments in the executive, the Taoiseach has said he and the British Prime Minister would consider a joint meeting with all the parties if it was "useful or necessary".
Speaking in Cork yesterday , after he had met Senator Mitchell, Mr Ahern confined himself to saying he hoped to be in the North again "in the near future". He also insisted the peace process had not "stopped", contrary to a claim by the former Labour leader, Mr Dick Spring.
Senator Mitchell will meet party leaders when he visits Belfast to receive an award. The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, is expected to use the opportunity to seek his support to try to persuade President Clinton to become directly involved. He said yesterday he had already made similar urgings to the White House.
Speculation of a US initiative centres on December 7th and 8th, when the eight leaders of the North's political parties, along with President Clinton, are presented with this year's Averell Harriman Democracy Award in Washington. The prize is to be presented by Senator Mitchell. The White House has been cool in recent days about suggestions that the President can knock heads together on decommissioning. A spokesman told The Irish Times the implementation of the Belfast Agreement was "progressing well overall", and that "we are encouraging the parties to carry out the Good Friday agreement to make progress to establish the political institutions".
But if President Clinton makes any intervention next week, diplomatic sources say, it will be to urge the unionist and Sinn Fein leaders to accept whatever compromise is being offered from London and Dublin. While it is expected that the Taoiseach will speak to Mr Clinton by telephone before the Washington event, the Government is unaware of any plans for a White House initiative.
As the First Minister, Mr Trimble, and the Deputy First Minister resume their efforts today to find a way through the political blockages, Mr Mallon said yesterday that Northern Ireland's political process would have "much better self-respect" if they could agree between them. Interviewed on Sky television, he said he would prefer "solving and sorting out these problems between us within the political process in Northern Ireland - not having to run to Downing Street or to the Taoiseach every time there is a problem."
Mr Mallon added that an "enormous amount of work" had been done this week, and he would be meeting Mr Trimble early this morning to continue it. But he repeated a warning that unless "key decisions" were made soon there would be a "remarkable hiatus" in the process, with the Washington trip, the award of the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo and the Christmas recess intervening.
Meanwhile, an Assembly delegation including representatives of Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionist Party will arrive in South Africa tomorrow for a five-day visit to study the country's power-sharing political system.
The trip is a repeat of one made in 1997, when nationalists and unionists met South African politicians to discuss the multi-party talks which led to South Africa's peaceful transition to democracy.
The Assembly group will spend four days at a symposium in Pretoria where members will be briefed by cabinet ministers from the African National Congress, before travelling to the politically volatile KwaZulu-Natal province to meet provincial leaders. The delegation includes the SDLP chief whip, Mr Eddie McGrady, the Sinn Fein chief whip, Mr Alex Maskey, the DUP deputy leader, Mr Peter Robinson, and the Women's Coalition leader, Mrs Monica McWilliams.
