The Government tonight said it intended to permit the ongoing use of Shannon Airport in the American military build-up for war in Iraq.
Dublin approval for the US to continue moving troops through the Co Clare airport is expected to be incorporated in a motion to be debated tomorrow by the Dail. The Dail is being recalled specially from its week-long break for St Patrick's Day celebrations.
The motion, the wording of which was agreed this evening, will also spell out government regret that it proved impossible to get international unity ahead of action being taken in Iraq.
The terms of the Dail proposal were fixed at a meeting of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's cabinet which was delayed by the late arrival in Dublin of some ministers after fog at the city's airport delayed their return from overseas.
The parliamentary motion is certain to be resisted by all of the opposition parties who have signalled their reservations over the US use of Shannon. In addition concerns have also been expressed by some supporters of the Government.
Tonight Mr Ahern told RTE News that to withdraw a facility that had applied for more than 40 years would have been seen "as a hostile act and it was not something I was prepared to do".
He said there was a clear legal view that providing landing and ancillary facilities did not mean actively engaging or participating in a war.
Up to today, some 33,400 US military personnel had passed through Shannon in 2003 on 326 flights. The build-up of American troops began last October and has been steadily growing over the months.
Military-linked activity at the west of Ireland airport has been a fact of life there for more than four decades but anti-war campaigners - who have staged a number of demonstrations in the locality - maintain that the difference now is that the US forces have been on their way to a war rather than using Shannon to transfer from one base to another.
They claim that the development has run counter to The State's long-standing policy of military neutrality and is also illegal and immoral, making the Irish complicit in US actions against the citizens of Iraq.
Defenders of the Government stance of allowing the Americans to use Shannon have pointed to strong transatlantic political links as well as economic factors with the US dimension contributing to the financial well-being of the region.
Last year the traffic was worth more than euro nine million Shannon but earlier this year three American airlines that had been involved in troop transfer operations pulled out because of security fears after peace demonstrators damaged aircraft at Shannon.
PA