Clinton ponders next step in Ireland

World leaders applaud U.S. efforts to ensure peace

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell heralded Clinton's role in brokering the peace pact for Northern Ireland last week and he stressed that all sides must ensure ultimate success of the deal to end three decades of sectarian violence.

"This agreement really doesn't finalize peace. It creates the opportunity for peace and reconciliation," Mitchell said on ABC's "This Week." "It's a good first step, but there's still a long way to go."

AP PHOTO Five boys play with an Irish Tricolour flag as they sit on a wall in West Belfast, Ireland yesterday, where a yearly parade commemorated a republican uprising in Dublin in 1916.

Mitchell said he believes a return Clinton visit to Northern Ireland in the coming months would bolster support for the peace pact before a voter referendum on May 22. Clinton traveled to both Northern Ireland's capital, Belfast, and Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, in 1995.

"I know he's considering it," said Mitchell, noting that Clinton is "the only American president ever to have visited Northern Ireland while in office (and) the first to make it a high priority for American policy."

White House spokesperson Joe Lockhart said a Northern Ireland trip is under consideration by the president but no definite plans have been made. Clinton will be in the region in mid-May for an economic summit in England.

Clinton will meet today at the White House with Mitchell "to get a firsthand report" from the envoy he appointed three years ago, Lockhart said.

The president, who spent the weekend at his Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, took more congratulatory telephone calls yesterday from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was at the peace table, and Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the United Nations. "They were both basically to express some gratitude for the president's help," Lockhart said of the calls.

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) a confidant of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, said Clinton's engagement could make or break the deal in the upcoming referendum.

"Sinn Fein is fearful of being left alone - when the euphoria of the peace process is over, and we go back to Washington, the British go back to London - that they would still be there under the gun of the Unionists," the main pro-British Protestant party, King said on "Fox News Sunday."

"He's the linchpin here and he can keep this together," King said of Clinton.

Martin McGuinness, chief negotiator for Sinn Fein, the political wing of the Irish Republican Army, praised Clinton for becoming "intellectually and emotionally involved" in Northern Ireland's future.

"We have been really, really impressed by his knowledge of the situation and also by his commitment to the search for equality, for justice, and for peace in Ireland," McGuinness said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Under the peace deal, Northern Ireland would remain part of the United Kingdom with a new assembly. But the Protestants and Catholics in this new administration would be required to forge formal links with the rest of Ireland as well.

Hurdles remain in implementing the peace agreement including the possibility of continued violence.

"There are people on both sides who want to disrupt this process, who are committed to the way of violence, and I expect they'll step up their activities between now and the date of the referendum and thereafter," Mitchell said. "My hope is that it won't destabilize the process."

Mitchell said death threats against government officials during the talks added to the pressure to forge a compromise quickly.

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