SIR Patrick Mayhew is set to meet Ms Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, during her visit to London this week. Downing Street last night confirmed it expected Sir Patrick to be present when Ms Albright held talks with the British Prime Minister Mr Major, at Number 10 on Wednesday afternoon.
This confirmation came amid strong suggestions that American briefings - and not British "dirty tricks" - may have been responsible for last week's wave of speculation about the future of Ms Jean Kennedy Smith, the US Ambassador to Ireland.
Elements in the "British Foreign Office" were immediately presumed responsible for reports in the London Times that Ms Kennedy Smith was on her way out as part of a tilt by the Clinton administration in favour of the British government's approach to policy in Northern Ireland.
The policy tilt, like the ambassador's removal, always seemed highly improbable and an overt British campaign for either appeared to many observers both unwise and doomed to fail.
However, the suspicion of British "dirty tricks" - in Irish and American diplomatic circles - was fuelled by the earlier episode in which wholly false allegations were levelled against Ms Martha Pope, key aide to the Stormont inter party talks chairman, former Senator George Mitchell. Despite ministerial denials, the belief persists that some elements in the British government - possibly acting under unionist pressure - would like to unpick the US involvement in the talks process.
As a result, Washington reacted angrily to the London reports and signalled continuing support for Ms Kennedy Smith. In a further development, Ms Albright cancelled a request for a separate meeting with Sir Patrick, citing diary problems. This was immediately regarded as a snub to the Northern Ireland Secretary and a sign of Washington's irritation.
Sir Patrick rejected that interpretation of Ms Albright's inability to keep a meeting which she, not he, had requested. British sources continued to declare themselves bewildered by reports of an Anglo American rift.
Now some well placed sources say London on this occasion has been wrongly abused. They say internal US tensions and rivalries between the US embassies in London and Dublin produced the stories against Ms Kennedy Smith.
There was even a suggestion that Ms Albright had cancelled the separate meeting with Sir Patrick to avoid Ms Kennedy Smith's attendance, but British officials dismissed this, saying the ambassador to Ireland would not have "locus" at such a meeting and would therefore not have been expected to attend.
In any event it now appears Sir Patrick will attend Wednesday's talks on Northern Ireland. The British and American spin doctors can be expected to sing from the same hymn sheet as Ms Albright reaffirms the Clinton administration's support for the position of both the British and Irish governments.