Describing the Tanaiste, Mr Spring, as "an outstanding advocate of the people of East Timor", the occupied territory's Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Dr Jose Ramos Horta, has asked Ireland to use its influence with Washington on the issue, reports David Shanks.
Dr Horta, who met the Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday in Dublin, told a press conference that President Clinton was "very sympathetic" on the issue, unlike President Chirac, Mr John Major and Chancellor Kohl. He hoped Ireland could use its cultural, historical, and political relationship with the US to help exert pressure to end Indonesia's 22 year illegal occupation of East Timor. He also praised the former minister, Mr David Andrews.