THE Republican Presidential candidate, Mr Robert Dole, has challenged President Clinton's claim that Northern Ireland is an example of his success in foreign policy.
Mr Dole, who was campaigning in Tennessee, was reported as telling businessmen that "even though the President invited a terrorist to the White House it did not lead to peace in Ireland".
This seems to be a reference to the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, whose visit to the While House in 1994, in spite of British objections to his getting a US visa, helped prepare for the IRA ceasefire later that year.
Mr Dole's speech was a wide ranging attack on Mr Clinton's foreign policy in the aftermath of the Mid-East summit in Washington earlier this week. Mr Dole listed Northern Ireland as Just one example where the President's claim to have brought peace has proved premature.
Other areas where the President's foreign policy has failed, according to Mr Dole, are Iraq, Haiti, North Korea.
Mr Dole's reference to the Adams visit to the White House could be an embarrassing gaffe, however. Mr Dole himself received Mr Adams on Capitol Hill when he was Senate leader and was reported as saying that when he was president, Mr Adams would not have to enter the White House by the back door.
Mr Dole's comments echo those of former Secretary of State, Mr Jim Baker, at the Republican convention last August when he said that when President Clinton received a "representative of terrorism" at the White House, it resulted in America's relations with Britain sinking to their lowest since the Boston tea party.
These remarks caused uproar in Irish-American circles and widespread criticism of Mr Baker. They also upset a section of the Republican party which is trying hard to appeal to Irish Americans in the forthcoming election.
This section includes New York congressman, Peter King, who is a strong supporter of Mr Adams and the influential Republican chairman of the
House committee on international relations, Ben Gilman. It remains to be seen how they now react to Mr Dole's description of Mr Adams.
The White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry, riposted later to the Dole charges saying that "on each and every one of these points, this world is in a better position that it was four years ago because of the conduct of US foreign policy".