Timing of award a bonus for Clinton

The award of the Nobel Peace Prize to two of the authors of the Belfast Agreement could not have come at a more opportune time for President Clinton as he strives this weekend to help bring about a lasting peace in the Middle East.

The President has held up the Belfast Agreement as a role model for achieving peace in other world trouble-spots.

The Nobel award to John Hume and David Trimble is seen by the White House as a wonderful way of crowning the often laborious and despairing years of effort to reach a permanent peace in Northern Ireland.

From the beginning, John Hume has received full support from different US administrations and Congress for his efforts for peace and, with the arrival of Mr Clinton in the White House, the time was ripe for the final push.

The White House door was also fully opened for Mr Trimble when he unexpectedly became the Ulster Unionist Party leader. Slowly, a good relationship was built up between the inexperienced former law professor and Mr Clinton and his aides in the National Security Council who work on Northern Ireland.

While the prize has gone to the leaders of the biggest two parties, Mr Clinton went out of his way to pay tribute to the Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, in his first reaction to the news yesterday.

The President took the opportunity of the budget settlement announcement at a gathering in the Rose Garden of the White House to commend Mr Adams as another leader who "has deserved credit for his indispensable role". He listed Mr Adams ahead of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair.

The President also gave "a special word of thanks" to former Senator George Mitchell. "The American people appreciate the recognition that the Nobel Peace Prize committee gave our nation."

While Mr Clinton could not spell it out, it was clear that the awarding of the prestigious peace prize to two of the authors of the Belfast Agreement was also a recognition that the United States and the President himself had played a vital role as well.

From the awarding of a US visa to Mr Adams before the first IRA ceasefire to the appointment of Mr Mitchell to a key role in the peace talks, and the midnight phone calls from the White House as the agreement teetered in the balance, Mr Clinton has been deeply involved in a personal way.

The US role in Northern Ireland is underlined indirectly by the fact that when the Nobel award was announced, both Mr Trimble and Mr Adams were touring the US. Mr Trimble and his Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, are seeking new investment for Northern Ireland to underpin the new peace. Mr Adams is fund-raising for Sinn Fein, which is now fully part of the democratic process.

Mr Adams was asked in New York if Sinn Fein and the republican movement were disappointed that he was not included in the prize-winners and if such a disappointment could threaten the peace process.

Mr Adams dismissed such thoughts as unworthy of the republican movement, insisting that it is "deeply wedded to the peace process".

Who would have imagined when Mr Adams first arrived in the US with President Clinton's blessing as the political leader of an armed movement still planting bombs and killing people that five years later he would be back here being saluted by the same President for his role in creating the peace to which the Nobel Committee has now given its seal of approval as a model for the rest of the world?