THE White House has welcomed the article by the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, in Thursday's Irish Times as a forthcoming statement of the British government's commitment to serious and meaningful negotiations and to seeing the peace process through to a comprehensive settlement".

A White House spokesman urged Northern Ireland voters to take part in the elections on May 30th and "empower their representatives to negotiate with vision and generosity.

He was speaking after a meeting between the National Security Adviser, Mr Anthony Lake, and the Northern Ireland Political Development Minister, Mr Michael Ancram.

In his article, Mr Major said that the negotiations would be a genuine and serious effort to reach a comprehensive settlement", and talks would not be blocked by disputes on the decommissioning issue.

White House spokesman Mr David Johnson said that the article indicated that Mr Major had not underestimated the difficulties in resolving the conflict.

"He has expressed faith in the will of the people to overcome these difficulties and achieve a comprehensive settlement and a peaceful and prosperous future for the people of Northern Ireland", Mr Johnson said. "This is a faith we share. We continue to urge the people of Northern Ireland to participate in the May 30th election and empower their elected reps to negotiate with vision and generosity when the talks begin in the 10th of June."

There was no place for violence in the process and Sinn Fein should be at the table, he said. "Their voice and the voice of the people they represent should be heard but that can only happen if the cease-fire is restored. And we once again call on those who have resorted to violence to restore the cease-fire and to do it now."

Asked about the possible role of Senator George Mitchell in the talks, Mr Ancram said they agreed that he "had an important and meaningful role to play if he was prepaid to do so". This would be a matter for consultation with him, between the two governments and with the parties.

Asked if decommissioning could be dealt with on a separate and parallel strand in the talks he said. "What we're talking about here is recognising that decommissioning as a subject doesn't fit into any of the existing strands, which are to do with the various relationships which I referred to, but the Whole decommissioning question must be resolved as part of the overall negotiations."

Decommissioning "can't be part of the existing three strands and it must be part of the negotiations as a whole".

Addressing Tory backbench charges of "appeasement" of the IRA, Mr Ancram said that there had been a wrong impression "that decommissioning is going to be somehow divorced from the rest of the process".

He continued: "We have to see reinstatement of the cease-fire, unequivocally, and I hope that the American administration can continue to urge Sinn Fein and the IRA to restore that cease-fire so that they can become part of that democratic process and, at the same time, make it clear that, if they do not restore that cease-fire, they cannot hold a right of veto in this process. This process will continue without them."