SENATOR George Mitchell said yesterday in New York that it was up to the parties themselves to decide on the question of whether an elected body in Northern Ireland would help or hinder the peace process,
In his first comments since launching his report on decommissioning in Belfast on Wednesday morning, Senator Mitchell refused to be drawn on Mr John Major's assembly proposals, which have attracted nationalist criticism,
The White House still declined to comment yesterday on Mr Major's proposal, as officials try to assess the situation fully, One source said the White House had been "blind sided" by the British initiative.
Mr Bruce Morrison, chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board and a leader of the Irish American peace activists, said there was room "for the nationalist community to work on the electoral issue if it helps to move the all party talks forward".
Asked whether an elected body would help or hinder the process, Mr Mitchell said it was outside the remit of the international body he chaired and was a matter for the parties themselves,
"The political track is their area, not ours, They must settle that issue," he said,
Mr Mitchell added that during submissions to his commission many matters were raised, including the electoral process, but it did not incorporate the idea of such a body in the main part of the report because it was outside its remit.
"It was raised repeatedly during our hearings," Mr Mitchell said in an interview with Channel 4.
The proposal for a Northern Ireland assembly was nothing more than a red herring to deflect attention from the Mitchell report," according to the Ad Hoc Committee for Irish Affairs in the US Congress,
The committee, a consistent critic of British policy in Northern Ireland, had high praise for the recommendations in the report that all party talks begin in Ireland without the precondition of disarmament,
"Senator Mitchell's report has removed the last impediment to the road to lasting peace for all Ireland," said a committee statement.
"While we are extremely pleased with the Mitchell report, we are quite dismayed with the remarks made by British Prime Minister John Major in reaction to the report," the committee said.
"It is a shame that he has chosen to politically pander to his unionist constituency on the same day as this historic announcement."
Congressman Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts accused the British government of "grasping at straws to justify its intransigent position with regard to advancing the peace process,
The Irish American Unity Conference, a lobbying group in Washington dedicated to the peaceful reunification of Ireland, accused Mr Major of calling elections "knowing full well that the contrived unionist majority would dictate the outcome of any talks that would emerge from such an arrangement",