PRESIDENT Clinton's national security adviser, Mr Tony Lake, has been urging the leaders of loyalist parties to try and ensure that loyalist paramilitaries maintain their ceasefire in spite of the Manchester bomb explosion.
The contacts were revealed by the White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry. He said Mr Lake had telephoned Mr David Ervine of the PUP and Mr Gary McMichael of the UDP "to underscore the need for the maintenance of the loyalist ceasefire and to compliment them on their efforts so far".
Asked about Sinn Fein, the spokesman said the White House would stay in contact as long as such contacts remained "useful".
The bombing at the weekend caused revulsion and anger inside the US administration, which was reflected in the strong statement by President Clinton. This reaction is now said to have, been replaced by a "more reflective approach", meaning that the White House has now adopted a "wait and see" attitude with some hope that the IRA ceasefire can still be restored.
The Washington Post in a hard hitting editorial entitled "The choice before Gerry Adams" said yesterday: "If he is sincere in his desire for peace, it is now clear that he is outnumbered in the councils of the IRA, and therefore ineffective".
His refusal to condemn the bombing "has gained him nothing and it has infuriated people of goodwill in Ulster and beyond to listen to his weasely expressions of sympathy for the victims without a corresponding renunciation of the killers".
The editorial concludes that Mr Adams's "current lukewarm line won't wash. If he remains comfortable with the chosen tactics of the killers, he is of no use in the peace process. If, as he would have Americans and others believe, he is a true reformer with the interests of his country at heart, he will join the effort to isolate and stop the murderers".