PRESIDENT Clinton has expressed continued strong support for the efforts of the Irish and British governments to bring about a peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland.
The British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, briefed the US President on developments in the multi-party talks and the most recent IRA activity during a 40-minute meeting here on the eve of the G7 Summit.
The discussion on the North was fairly general", according to a British spokesman, as the meeting also covered the G7 economic agenda and the situation in Bosnia "President Clinton said he continued to support the work of Mr Major and Mr Bruton towards peace in Northern Ireland."
Speaking before their meeting, both Mr Major and Mr Clinton said they believed there were measures they could agree at the summit to deal with attacks such as that in Dhahran and the IRA bombing in Manchester.
"We have some British ideas, I understand there are some American ideas, we will discuss them bilaterally and we will discuss them with our colleagues."
Mr Clinton said: "You have had terrorism in the United Kingdom, we have had terrorism in the United States and this awful attack in Dhahran, they had the problem on the Tokyo subway. This is the security challenge of the 21st century, I am afraid, and we have to get at them."