THE OPENING of the peace talks in Belfast has been marked by a front page interview in the New York Times with the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams.
The interview, in the most prominent position on page one, is headed "Gerry Adams, Ulster Pivot, Sees `Best Bet' for Peace". He is described as "hanging in suspended animation" after the breaking of the IRA ceasefire.
Mr Adams said: "Twenty five years is a very long time to be locked into combat so we're making our best bet at getting a negotiated settlement.
"Nothing would suit me better than to have a situation where we had a settlement, which may be short of the republican objectives but which allows me and others to go back to the broad republican family and say: `right, we haven't got what we wanted, but we're in a situation now where over the next decade we can pursue, we can build our party, we can go on an all Ireland basis, we can strengthen our networking.'"
"That's what we want to be able to go back with."
The interviewer, John Darnton, writes that Mr Adams appears to have regained the influence he lost following the Canary Wharf bombing. "Once again he has resumed his delicate balancing act: being confrontational enough to keep the IRA militants behind him and conciliatory enough to retain leverage with the Clinton Administration and the Dublin Government."
Mr Adams "denies British intelligence reports that he was an active member in the IRA, rising to become a battalion commander in Belfast".
Asked "had he ever pulled a trigger or been directly responsible for loss of life?", Mr Adams "paused a micro second, then said, `I think we all have been in situations where we have directly contributed'."
He said he has also spoken out as a calming influence and undoubtedly saved lives. "But in terms of the contributions which we make to the conflict, I do think we have to accept and we ought to express regret for the fact that each of us has hurt and each of us has been hurt."
Mr Adams "usually wears a bullet proof vest in public" and stays out of cinemas and pubs. As a security precaution he sleeps in a different "safe house" every few nights so he rarely sees his wife and son, who is in his 20s.
Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, the Sinn Fein chairman, will be in Washington today to update members of Congress and US journalists.