NATO talks taking place in Dublin this weekend

THE US Embassy is sponsoring a private NATO conference in Dublin this weekend which has no implications for Irish neutrality, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The US Supreme Allied Commander on the Atlantic, General John Sheehan, together with a number of European ambassadors to NATO, will attend the three day conference organised by the US mission to NATO in collaboration with the US Embassy in Dublin.

The conference on "Security Issues and Challenges" will open in the Grand Hotel, Malahide, this evening.

The main subjects to be addressed at the conference will include NATO and the broader European architecture, an assessment of the military accomplishments and the challenges ahead for the Partnership for Peace, the European security identity and NATO enlargement.

It will be opened by the US Ambassador, Mrs Jean Kennedy Smith, and panellists include Mr Hans Kaekkerup, Danish Minister for Defence, Mr Gian Carlo Aragona, secretary general of the Organisation for Security and CoOperation in Europe, Mr Jose Cutileiro, secretary general of the Western European Union and Mr Robert Gelbard, US assistant Secretary of State.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said last night that there would be no Government involvement in the conference. It was being held in Ireland, he added, for reasons of geographic convenience.

Asked if the holding of the first NATO conference in Ireland could conflict with Ireland's policy of neutrality, the spokesman, said that the US Embassy in Dublin was a diplomatic mission. "If they want to hold a conference like this, hire a conference hall, they don't need any permission from us. I don't see how we would have any objection to it."

The spokesman added that he did not see how the US sponsored conference could have any implications for Irish neutrality. It didn't involve Ireland, he said.

Membership of NATO or the WEU was deemed to be incompatible with neutrality in the first White Paper on Foreign Policy published by the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, earlier this year.

The Government undertook, in that paper, to consider participation in the NATO sponsored Partnership for Peace and in peacekeeping and humanitarian missions with the Western European Union.

Sources in the US Embassy confirmed last night that that the conference was private, with attendance by invitation only. It would be conducted on an off the record or backgrounder basis.