PRESIDENT Clinton, shaken by the breakdown in the IRA ceasefire, has urged the British Prime Minister, Mr Major, not to be deflected from the peace process, a senior US official said yesterday.
The White House is working on the assumption that the IRA bomb in London was a "one off", and will intensify its efforts during the week to get the process back on track, the official said.
Mr Clinton will meet Mr David Trimble today when the Ulster Unionist leader comes to the White House for a working lunch with the National Security Adviser, Mr Anthony Lake. The visit was arranged some weeks ago.
Mr Trimble will also meet Senator George Mitchell, whose name featured in weekend reports that a senior administration official would go to Downing Street to help restore momentum to the process.
Mr Mitchell will be in London next week in his capacity as chairman of the International Crisis Group, a recently formed body which tries to identify conflicts before they occur.
He had been expected to meet Mr Major while there to follow up the report of the international body on arms which he chaired.
There was also speculation over the weekend that Mr Lake might visit Britain in the near future to discuss the crisis, but no decision has yet been made on this, the administration official said.
Mr Clinton said on Saturday that he telephoned both Mr Major and the Taoiseach and assured both "that America would continue to be committed to work for a negotiated, secure, peace".
"I am determined to do all that I can to see that the enemies of peace do not succeed," he said. "We will not stop in our efforts until peace has been secured."
Administration officials organised a conference call on Saturday with some 30 representatives of Irish America, at which assurances were given of the administration's full commitment to the peace process and continuing regard for Mr Adams as a key player.
The officials included Ms Nancy Soderberg of the National Security Council, the Commerce Secretary, Mr Ron Brown, the deputy assistant to the President for legislative affairs, Ms Susan Brophy, and Ms Martha Pope, deputy to Mr Mitchell in his capacity as special economic envoy to Ireland.
"They seem fully aware that Gerry Adams is in a very difficult position," said one of those who participated.
"They agreed that if Gerry Adams is out of the picture there is no peace process.
The White House spoke to the Sinn Fein leader several times on Friday and again on Saturday as officials "reviewed the situation and tried to establish how best to move forward".
Mr Lake telephoned Mr Trimble on Friday to reiterate the importance of coming to Washington despite the crisis.
Mr Trimble arrived on Saturday evening, accompanied by Mr Ken Maginnis, the party spokesman on security, and the party secretary, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson.
Mr Lake, who has compared the peace process to a bicycle which falls over if it goes too slowly, will want to talk to Mr Trimble on how to move things forward, the official said.
In a statement on Saturday, Mr Clinton said the real differences in the world "are not between Catholics and Protestants, Arabs and Jews, Muslims, Croats and Serbs. They are between those who embrace peace and those who reject it, those who look to the future and those who are blinded by the hatreds of the past, those who open their arms and those who are determined to keep clenching their fists."