THE British ambassador to the US, Sir John Kerr, has had a sharp exchange with Congressman Peter King on Capitol Hill over the latter's criticism of Mr John Major's role in the peace process.
The ambassador also objected to Mr King's claim that the British government has been involved in the controversial visit here by former IRA man and Garda agent Sean O'Callaghan.
The exchanges took place on the floor of the House of Representatives last Thursday before the President of Chile, Mr Eduardo Frei, addressed a joint session of Congress which was also attended by members of the diplomatic corps.
Sir John, who is leaving Washington to become head of the British Foreign Office, walked over to Mr King to complain about his remarks about" Mr Major made during the debate the previous day between the Congressman and Mr O'Callaghan.
A British embassy official told The Irish Times that the ambassador "put his views across firmly and persuasively". He objected to Mr King's "contention that the British government had done virtually nothing during the 17-month IRA ceasefire and also to the omission of any word of criticism of IRA violence," the official said.
Asked about the exchange, Mr King speaking from his New York office seemed surprised that it had become known. "There was no raising of voices, no cursing," he said. "Neither one of us gave any ground."
"John Kerr is a nice gay," Mr King said. "I have no problem with him. He was upset, concerned. I told him I stood by what I said."
The congressman said that the ambassador objected to two things he had said. "One that I thought Major was not serious about the peace process right now." The second thing he objected to was "that the British government had anything to do with O'Callaghan".
Mr King said: "I think it was fair comment for me to say that in the same week that Major put the peace process on hold, stories came out about Martha Pope (assistant to George Mitchell, Chairman of the multi-party talks) and O'Callaghan came out of jail with his stories. You don't have to be paranoid to realise there have been British dirty tricks over the years."
Mr King said: "Basically what I was saying, people in the American government and the Irish government are saying and it is accepted in the whole diplomatic community - that for his own electoral reasons John Major has put the peace process on hold."
Mr King said that while he held that, for his own electoral reasons, the British Prime Minister had put the peace process on hold, he also "gave credit to Major for being involved in the peace process at the start."