Bruton will ask Clinton to renew pledge to back outcome of North talks

THE Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, will ask President Clinton today to renew his forthright commitment to support an agreement reached by the Northern parties through negotiation in the multi party talks.

On his arrival in Washington last night for a meeting with the President in the White House this evening, Mr Bruton said he believed Mr Clinton's courageous support was vital in past progress and crucial to their current efforts to reach agreement between the parties.

"I will also thank him for making Senator George Mitchell available to help in the task," he told journalists. The international interest and expertise now being deployed to help solve the problem were unprecedented and the involvement of Senator Mitchell exemplified this, he added.

Saying that he was particularly looking forward to addressing both Houses of Congress on Wednesday, the Taoiseach said it would enable him to explain and win support for the Government's belief in genuine cross community reconciliation and agreement in Northern Ireland based on the three stranded approach, including North South and Dublin London relationships.

I will be emphasising the urgency for progress in the talks chaired by Senator Mitchell as the only effective way of making a move away from this summer's events which showed how destructive and reactionary sectarian responses can infect politics and make compromise even more difficult to achieve," he continued.

Mr Bruton said that the opportunity which presented itself with the reopening of the talks today must be used urgently for a constructive purpose. There was no time to lose.

"In my Congress address and in my talks with the president, I will emphasise the urgency and inevitability of an agreement," the Taoiseach said.

He believed that ultimately the parties must reach agreement and the sooner they did it, the less hardship and fear the community would have to face and the greater the resultant prosperity and fulfilment would be for all.

Mr Bruton was clearly of the view last night that a renewed commitment to the all party talks, reopening in Belfast today, could inject a momentum into them, as happened with previous commitments by President Clinton in Washington last March and on his visit to Ireland last November.

In addition to the difficulties in Northern Ireland, the EU-US agenda under the Irish EU Presidency and the controversial US attack on Iraq are expected to be the main items on the agenda during a 40 minute meeting in the Oval Office in the White House.

The highlight of Mr Bruton's four day trip to Washington will be his address to the joint Houses of Congress on Wednesday. Mr Bruton is known to be immensely proud to be one of only three Taoisigh, all of them Fine Gael, and 25 heads of state or government afforded such an invitation since 1945.

Addresses were made by Mr Liam Cosgrave in 1973 and Dr Garret FitzGerald in 1984. President, de Valera addressed a joint session of the Senate and House of Representatives in 1968.

Besides meeting Speaker Gingrich and other Congressional leaders on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Mr Bruton will also meet the Friends of Ireland ad hoc committee hosted by Congressman Ben Gilman, chairman of the International Relations Committee of the House.

Mr Clinton is expected to discuss the arrangements for the prospective EU US summit in Ireland in December, following the US election in November.