Senator George Mitchell, who chaired the talks leading to the Belfast Agreement, says he hopes the potential of the accord could yet be realised. Dan Keenan, Northern News Editor, reports.
He said the agreement merely provided the context in which peace and stability could take root in society, it did not guarantee it.
Mr Mitchell, who is chancellor of Queen's University, was in Belfast yesterday for the annual charter dinner commemoration to mark the granting of its charter in 1908.
The Vice Chancellor, Mr Peter Gregson, said of Mr Mitchell: "His reputation as an international statesman and a public speaker gives him an entrée to arenas where he can act as a powerful ambassador for Northern Ireland."
The Primate of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames, said political efforts to bring stability to the North would not succeed unless they were matched by a desire on the part of the people to live in peace together.
"You can put all the political structures in place that you want," Dr Eames said. "That is progress. But until people on the ground say they want to be reconciled, we want it to work, you cannot enforce reconciliation. History has shown us all over the world. Too often we say if you get the political aspect right, then everything else will fall into place.
"Until people say this is the sort of life we want, this is the sort of community we want, nothing is going to be enforceable."
On the question of the monitoring of weapons decommissioning by two significant members of the clergy, Archbishop Eames said: "Certainly I personally would take the view that if we can help in this process we have an obligation to do so."