PRESIDENT CLINTON yesterday suggested that the United States would seek to guarantee, as far as possible, the outcome of talks and any agreement reached at the end of the Northern Ireland peace process.
"Our involvement here presumes the integrity of any agreement which would be made", the President told reporters after meeting the Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, in the White House.
It would be very hard for the terms of an agreement not to be carried out, the President said, because the US "had placed its good faith, if you will, in the ultimate product". Mr Clinton's remarks - in reply to questions about how nationalists might be reassured about the forthcoming talks - came at the end of a week of intense political activity in Washington.
It was learned that the US plans to hold a second investment conference for Northern Ireland and the six Border counties next September in Philadelphia.
In other developments, the leaders of the US Congress, Senator Bob Dole and House Speaker Mr Newt Gingrich, invited Mr Bruton to address a joint meeting of Congress later this year.
Asked how far the US administration could go to guarantee the talks and progress afterwards, Mr Clinton said: "I don't know that any country can guarantee the results of a peace process within another country ... we are still on the case and we plan to reach out to all the parties and to do whatever we can to support the disciplined, co ordinated and, we believe, proper approach [of the two prime ministers].
"I can tell you that Senator Mitchell is still on the case," Mr Clinton added, in a broad hint that Mr Mitchell might be involved when the talks get under way on June 10th.
Expressing the hope that the republican movement would listen to President Clinton's words very carefully, Mr Bruton said that he believed they would have "a disproportionate influence" in persuading the IRA to reinstate its ceasefire.
During his half hour private meeting with President Clinton yesterday Mr Bruton laid great emphasis on the need to ensure that there was no logjam on one issue decommissioning after June 10th. President Clinton's continued interest in the problem had reassured all participants in the talks that no one group would be isolated. "That is, I think, what the US administration is able to contribute a sense of reinforcing balance", Mr Bruton said.
The Taoiseach was yesterday advised by officials to reinforce this message at the highest level, and in all interviews, after he delivered what was diplomatically termed as an "unhelpful" speech to the American Irish Fund in Washington the previous night.
Discarding a balanced script and speaking off the cuff, Mr Bruton, in an emotional address, said that he hoped the Irish people had now reached a stage in development where they didn't need violence any more in Ireland. "Its day is done. Please, please, please IRA, please restore the ceasefire", he pleaded.
He stated that it was not everybody's responsibility to restore the ceasefire. "We can't restore the ceasefire. I can't restore the ceasefire. It is the responsibility of seven or eight people in the IRA. It is their decision and they must take it."