If Sinn Fein is expelled from the peace talks its leader, Mr Gerry Adams, should still be allowed to come to the US later this month to raise funds as planned, Mr Peter King, co-chairman of the Ad Hoc Committee on Irish Affairs said yesterday.
Mr King said he had been speaking to the White House, the British government and the Irish Embassy as well as to Mr Adams himself and he found a "consensus" that Mr Adams and Sinn Fein have been acting in good faith and has "basically lived up to his end of the agreement" which allowed him enter the talks.
Mr King said he thought that, if expelled from the talks, Sinn Fein would be re-admitted before St Patrick's Day and would thus qualify for an invitation to the White House.