The International Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives has urged the British government to implement in full the Patten report on the RUC. Committee members warned that failure to do so would cause the peace process "to crumble". There was strong condemnation of the RUC, some speakers claiming it was involved in the murders of Catholic solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
The committee also voted to urge the Nobel Prize be awarded to former Senator George Mitchell for his contribution to the peace process.
The resolution calling on the British government "to fully and faithfully implement" the recommendations was unanimously adopted by the committee. It is expected to be approved by the full House of Representatives before Congress rises next month.
A similar resolution tabled in the Senate by Senators Edward Kennedy and Chris Dodd may also be adopted. Senator Kennedy said yesterday that the Patten Commission agenda for reform "should not be watered down under unionist pressure".
The House resolution had its origin in a letter last June from Democratic Congressman Richard Neal of Massachusetts to the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, urging full implementation of Patten. It was cosigned by 121 members.
Mr Neal told the committee yesterday: "From the SDLP, the Catholic Church, the Irish Government and Sinn Fein, their message is simple: the Patten report should not be diluted, minimised or altered by the British government."
The committee's Republican chairman, Mr Ben Gilman of New York, said: "The British government and the unionists have failed to show a similar good faith to that the IRA has exercised." The IRA had "shown great courage and good faith" in its efforts to put arms beyond use.
"We hope to see full and meaningful police reform happen, not a continuation of the old British government/unionist politics being played with a one-sided veto over the policing issue." Mr Peter King, a Republican member from New York, said "taking the heart and soul out of the recommendations" would result in a police force that young Catholics could not join.