THE WHITE HOUSE said yesterday that it would renew Mr Gerry Adams's US visa without fund raising restrictions on the understanding that the Sinn Fein president would not seek to raise funds while in the United States.
White House officials also made clear that President Clinton expects all party talks on Northern Ireland to proceed on June 10th "no matter what happens in the electoral process".
Mr Adams gave an undertaking that he would not engage in fund raising while in the US, according to the White House spokesman, Mr Mike McCurry.
There will also be no access to the White House or any meetings with the President or Vice President until the IRA ceasefire is reimposed.
Mr Adams would hear how anxious the American people were to see peace brought to Northern Ireland, Mr McCurry said. "We believe it is important for that reason he be allowed to have meetings with the Irish American community.
The White House is understood to have given the British government advance notice of the decision and was assured there would be no opposition. A year ago there was a bitter London Washington row when Mr Clinton first gave Mr Adams permission to raise funds without advance notice to the British embassy.
There was no official comment from Downing Street last night, except to repeat that the matter of a visa was one for the American government.
However, Mr David Wilshire, vice chairman of the Tory backbench Northern Ireland committee, told PA News "President Clinton's decision is an absolute disgrace. I just wonder how America would feel if we rolled out the red carpet for the Oklahoma bombers. I can't make up my mind whether President Clinton is naive or stupid.
"The conditions attached to Mr Adams's visa make no difference. In some ways, they make matters worse because, by flagging up what Mr Adams isn't able to do, you highlight what he is being allowed to do."
But Mr McCurry told a briefing in the White House "The President would not have made this step if he did not believe that this would further the peace process."
Mr Adams applied for a visa in early February and intended visiting the US during the St Patrick's Day period, probably from March 10th to 17th. A major New York fund raiser had been planned for March 12th.
The bar on meetings with Mr Clinton means that the Sinn Fein president is unlikely to attend a function in the Plaza Hotel in New York on March 11th, where Mr Clinton will receive the Irish American of the Year award from Irish America magazine.
President Clinton consulted his National Security Adviser, Mr Anthony Lake, yesterday morning before signing off on the decision, which could draw domestic criticism from those who oppose Mr Adams's entry, including Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and conservative newspapers, sources said.
Mr Lake told some 25 prominent Irish Americans during a conference call later that Mr Adams had told them that his purpose was "to advance the peace process, not fund raising", according to one of the participants.
Mr Lake reassured them that the all party talks scheduled for June 10th were "not conditional on the outcome of the electoral process", giving rise to speculation that the US was assured there would be talks even if there were no elections.
A White House official confirmed the remark, but explained that it had not crossed my mind in the White House that there would not be elections of some kind.
Mr Lake told the group that even if the parties did not reach a consensus on electoral issues the British were committed to go to all party talks by June 10th, the date agreed by the London and Dublin governments, the participant said.
Mr Lake, who has been in frequent telephone contact with all the parties in the process, including Mr Adams, said that he had been working several hours a day on the peace process.
Mr Bruce Morrison, chairman of the US Federal Housing Finance Board, said "It's the same visa as before. Gerry Adams has committed that he won't fund raise and therefore there would be no need to put any restriction on, because they have taken him at his word."