AGREEMENT to hold the Anglo Irish Summit in London todays was only reached early this morning after the Taoiseach, Mr, Bruton, and the British Prime, Minister, Mr John Major, cleared the way with two late night phone, calls.
The summit will be held in Downing Street at 12.30 p.m. and will be followed by a joint press conference. The Taoiseach will then fly back to Dublin where he will announce the details in the Dail.
For several hours last night it looked as if the summit had run into insurmountable difficulties over the Irish insistence on fixing a definite date for the start of all party talks. Earlier, Mr Bruton had told the Dail that this was the Government's intention for the summit but that further contacts would be needed with Mr Major before the go ahead could be given.
The hope now is that the summit will get the peace process back on track following the resumption of the IRA bombing campaign. Both governments will now expect that setting a date for talks will enable Sinn Fein to ask the IRA to call a new ceasefire.
Today's summit is expected to pave the way for preliminary or "proximity talks" in which the political parties and the two governments can discuss arrangements for an election in Northern Ireland to produce a body or forum to conduct all party talks.
The Government has insisted in intensive discussions with London that these arrangements be "time locked". But it remains to be seen how the summit communique will deal with problems such as the role for Sinn Fein in preliminary talks, the electoral system, the all Ireland referendum sought by SDLP leader Mr John Hume and the use of the Mitchell principles.
Before last night's communication between Mr Major and Mr Bruton, Irish sources told The Irish Times "it would seem the principle of a fixed date for all party negotiations was no longer an issue" between the two governments.
This was taken to mean that Mr Major was ready to agree a date specific package but that the Taoiseach and crime Minister would have to determine and agree the precise date on which negotiations would begin in direct relation to the date of elections in the North.
It appeared that this difficulty over the date was holding up agreement on a summit communique last night. But a Government spokesman said the hold up was due to the need "to ensure clarity" and that the date for talks was not the core issue.
The Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, reminded the Taoiseach during Question Time in the Dail that the previous summit on November 28th had announced the end of February as the firm aim for all party talks and this target had not been met.
It was clear that the Government's credibility would he gravely undermined if this summit also failed to agree a date.
Earlier yesterday, Irish officials returned from London with the results of their discussions on the draft communique.
The Cabinet was briefed on the situation and it was then left to the Taoiseach and officials to reach the final agreement on the communique which would allow today's summit to go ahead.
How the so called Mitchell principles would form part of the process for admitting Sinn Fein and loyalist parties to the future negotiations would also have to be worked out in the proximity talks.
It remains to be seen if these discussions on the form of an electoral process and the place of the Mitchell principles laying down total renunciation of violence will be seen as acceptable conditions by Sinn Fein and the IRA.
One possibility being canvassed. lasts night was that Sinn Fein might be permitted to join the initial, intensive talks if the party endorsed the Mitchell report's six principles.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, insisted yesterday that "a new peace process must be rooted in clear unambiguous public assurances that all party talks will begin by a fixed specified date _ as soon as possible".
The designation of the date for the start of negotiations was apparently complicated by the legislative, administrative and other requirements related to the form of electoral process finally agreed.
According to British assessments, elections to an assembly or forum as proposed by the Ulster Unionists could be accomplished within a seven week period. However the suggestion was that elections operating a "list system" based on a single constituency party plebiscite would require an additional four or five weeks.
And it was claimed that the differences between London and Dublin on the post election date for the start of talks amounted to a matter of weeks either way, with, Dublin pressing for a start sooner rather than later".