THE SINN Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, returned from the US last weekend strengthened in his quest to find a formula to take to the IRA to persuade it to renew the ceasefire.
Mr Adams was barred from the St Patrick's Day celebrations in the White House but was not excluded from high level talks with the US administration.
He and National Security Adviser, Mr Tony Lake, held a secret meeting at the end of the week, as the Irish Echo first reported on Wednesday, to discuss the US role in nudging all parties into the mid summer negotiations scheduled by the Irish and British governments.
Why the two sides refused to announce their meeting, which was held away from the White House to conform to the "exclusion order" on Mr Adams, is something of a mystery. Everyone knew that something of this order was in the works and nobody was raising any objections.
What was important was the outcome and Mr Adams had reason to be happier leaving the US than when he arrived.
It was made clear that the National Security Adviser was encouraged by the joint approach by the Sinn Fein and SDLP leaders to the IRA to discuss the conditions under which the ceasefire could be reinstated, sources said.
What he had to say to Mr Adams he undoubtedly also conveyed to Mr John Hume, who met Mr Lake separately in the White House. Part of the message from the White House on its future role was intended for the two nationalsist parties.
This was that the president is fully committed to the "ultimate product" from the negotiations. The ultimate product, as Mr Clinton said during a brief question and answer session with Irish reporters, was something in which the United States placed its good faith.
"Our involvement here presumes the integrity of any agreement which may be made," he said. (Significantly, he remarked privately afterwards that he was very pleased with his formulation of words in making his replies.)
Mr Clinton, who also made the point strongly that Sinn Fein's condition of a date for talks had been met and that what was required now was trust, was in effect saying that the White House is staying with the process to the bitter end.
The president admitted he cannot guarantee the outcome of a peace process in another country. But he came as close as he could.
The other part of the message was for the unionists. Mr Lake was keen to make it clear to the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, whom he met in the White House, that the US was committed to negotiations but not to a nationalist agenda during those negotiations.
As always, the White House looks forward to points of focus where it can assist the process. One of these will come with a second investment conference which Mr Clinton will chair in Philadelphia in September and to which all the parties will be invited.
Another is a likely visit by the Mr Clinton to Ireland in December to coincide with a European Union summit. He is unlikely to stop over in Ireland for his long promised game of golf in Ballybunion on his way back to Washington from the G7 summit in France in July.
His advisers say it could attract criticism in the run up to the election and, in any case, Mr Clinton has done enough to secure the maximum Irish American vote in November. But in December, he will either be on the way out as president or about to start four more years.
Mr Clinton also emphasised that Senator George Mitchell may have a further role to play. "I can, tell you that Senator Mitchell is still on the case," he said.
The criticism by the deputy leader of the UUP, Mr John Taylor, of Mr Mitchell's staff voiced this week for being over friendly with Mr Adams at the American Ireland Fund dinner on March 14th did not cut much ice in Washington. "What does that mean?" asked one official. "There were a lot of people fawning over David Trimble at the dinner who didn't agree with the unionist leader."
A problem might, in fact, arise from internal tensions between the National Security Council and Mr Mitchell's office. Some observers believe the NSC is wary about ceding "control" of the process to a presidential envoy.
The importance to Sinn Fein of Mr Clinton's promise to "reach out to all the parties" which he renewed on Friday of last week, is that it reasserts the internationalisation of the conflict, one of the conditions which persuaded the IRA to call its ceasefire in August 1994.
"All the parties" includes the British and Irish governments. The back chat diplomacy conducted by the White House continues all the time.
The fingerprints of the White House may not have been on the proposals produced by the British government this week, but the shadow of the United States continues to fall over the process, and that is something which no party, the British no less than Sinn Fein, can really ignore.