US Government representatives were tonight accused by a hard line unionist of "working to a nationalist/republican agenda" after an opinion poll suggested that almost half of Protestants still supported the Belfast Agreement.
Northern Ireland Unionist Party leader Mr Cedric Wilson rounded on US Consulate officials in Belfast after details of a recent survey carried out by the Americans were made public.
The US poll found that 49 per cent of Protestants and 89 per cent of Catholics were still in favour of the accord.
This survey, conducted from a sample of 1,293 people at the end of September and the start of October, found no single conclusive response from Protestants opposed to the agreement as to why they did not support it.
The opinion poll claimed 13 per cent of this group believed it had not lived up to expectations or achieved anything, 13 per cent felt they could not support it because "terrorists are now in government", 11 per cent said it was because the IRA still had weapons and was involved in violence and 11 per cent felt the Agreement had not been implemented.
New policing structures in the North also attracted good ratings in the American survey, with 56 per cent of Catholics and 71 per cent of Protestants expressing confidence in the new police service.
However, the survey also showed that 65 per cent of Protestants and 44 per cent of Catholics had little or no confidence in the Northern Ireland Assembly before the suspension of devolution.
The poll also revealed that 58 per cent of Protestants and 42 per cent of Catholics believed Northern Ireland was heading in the "wrong direction".
Responding to claims by the US Consul General in Belfast, Ms Barbara Stevenson, that the poll showed solid support for the Agreement, the NIUP leader claimed this was a "misrepresentation of the findings of the poll".
She insisted: "The poll itself did not remotely show solid unionist support for the Belfast Agreement.
PA